Markeshia Ricks File Photo
Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers.
Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers has decided to seek a sixth two-year term representing the West River neighborhood.
“I’m in it. I’m running another term. There’s still work to be done out there. I want to be a part of it. I love being a part of this government,” Walker-Myers said Tuesday during an appearance on WNHH FM radio.
Walker-Myers first won election as alder of Ward 23 in 2011. She was one of 17 labor-backed alders who ran as a team that year and won control of the Board of Alders, promising to pursue a joint agenda focused on working families.
Five years into the journey, she became the leader of the board, succeeding Jorge Perez as president. (Perez left to become the state’s banking commissioner, a position he still holds.)
She is probably the most influential person in government with the lowest profile. She tends to keep private negotiations private and speak publicly in joint statements with other alders. “I like to do the work behind the scenes,” she said in the WNHH interview. “I’m not in this work for fame, fortune or a title. I want to make sure people in New Haven have a standing chance for what they want for their lives and their children.”
Walker-Myers, whose day job is as a steward of Yale’s UNITE HERE Local 35, has suffered personal losses since early 2020, including the murder of an 18-year-old nephew. And like every one else she contended with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, moving meetings online and helping constituents obtain emergency help like rental assistance.
“I believe we are going to come out of this pandemic in a better place. Covid exposed so many things we knew were there, but were hidden, so many inequalities in the city,” Walker-Myers said. “Covid is the perfect opportunity for legislation, more conversations.”
Her experience as board leader has taught her the importance of working to build coalitions to pass legislation, and the importance of having a specific agreed-upon agenda based on “shared values,” she said. To that end, the alders recently approved a legislative agenda emphasizing jobs, public safety, quality affordable housing, health equity, vibrant communities, and environmental justice. (Read about that here.)
Walker-Myers, a Democrat, had been mentioned as a possible mayoral candidate this year. She decided not to go that route. She said Tuesday that she hasn’t decided whether she will back incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker or expected challenger Karen DuBois-Walton in the Democratic primary. “I don’t take my support lightly. It’s not given. It’s earned,” she said. “People are really good at saying what they care about and what they’re going to do. I need to see your plan.”
Click on the video to watch the full interview with Walker-Myers on WNHH.
More work to be done she saids, I can't see the work she or any of the other unite here Bobby Proto puppet Alders have done other than sold a street to their employer Yale, consistently raised taxes, took 4 million from the police budget resulting in uptick in crime in all categories, Minority Contractors still begging for work, high unemployment rates in Newhallville and other heavy populated minority communities, poor education. I challenge anyone who would post a comment to show me one thing good this board under her leadership has done to benefit this community, oh not to mention the City is in the red by 66 million dollars, all this so that the Yale working Alder's can use their power against Yale their employer to get pay raises and a better contract for locals 34 and 35. They do not represent the voters, they represent the Yale workers.