Climate Change Looms Over Cove Race

Climate change has emerged as a defining issue in a Morris Cove alder race, as a six-term incumbent focused on nuts-and-bolts environmental upkeep faces a challenge from an activist determined to stop an expanding airport. 

Sal DeCola, who’s represented Morris Cove’s Ward 18 on the Board of Alders for nearly 12 years, is running again for a seventh term on his record of serving on the alders’ leadership and helping to steward numerous local boards. 

This time, he faces a challenger in addiction and family therapist Susan Campion, who is centering her campaign around an opposition to Tweed Airport’s growth while promising more communication with constituents.

The alder race has emerged as one of the closer contests in the city. DeCola received an endorsement from Ward 18 Democrats by a margin of two votes, and Campion submitted 172 verified signatures (109 more than were required) to successfully petition her way onto the Democratic primary ballot in the Sep. 12 election.

The coastal neighborhood — among the more vulnerable parts of New Haven to the increased flooding associated with climate change — will choose between two political approaches to environmental issues on the heels of a summer marked by wildfire-polluted air, record levels of heat, and a recent storm flood that left Tweed travelers stranded in Morris Cove without a bathroom.

Over DeCola’s nearly 12-year tenure representing Ward 18 on the Board of Alders, he’s focused much of his efforts on supervising, guiding, and monitoring local environmental agencies. 

Within the Board of Alders, in addition to serving as Third Officer, DeCola is a former chair of the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee. He’s now currently a member of the Parks Commission and the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA)‘s board of directors. 

When asked why he plans to run for re-election, DeCola, a retired mail carrier, said, ​“I have jobs I have to finish.”

Prompted to elaborate, DeCola explained he hopes to ​“follow through” with city boards he helped to revive or restructure, including the Environmental Advisory Council and the Emergency Advisory Council. 

DeCola said he will also continue to advocate for a developer’s current plans to preserve the historic Townshend Estate and build housing on the property. And through his position on the WPCA board, he hopes to address odors and other issues related to local water pollution.

As a result of his positions on multiple boards, DeCola said, ​“I have meetings every day and every night.”

“It’s a lot of time — and I earned it,” he added.

Among DeCola’s most consequential votes for the future of his ward was his support of a 43-year lease and operating agreement between the city and the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority. That alder-approved lease paved the way for a separate but parallel 43-year deal between the airport authority and Avports, a private Goldman Sachs-owned airport management company that intends to extend Tweed’s main runway and build a new four-to-six-gate terminal on the East Haven side of the property, ultimately expanding Tweed’s capacity to allow for more flights.

DeCola took the lead on negotiating an amendment to the original lease proposal between the city and the airport authority. The amendment included checks on the airport’s potential growth: preventing the city from outright selling land acquired by eminent domain to the airport; adding regulatory measures to any attempts to build freight transport infrastructure; and requiring regular community meetings.

DeCola’s amendment also mandated flood and stormwater management measures, a passenger carbon offset program ​“to the extent feasible,” and the creation of an Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee for the airport.

The night of the deal’s unanimous passage by alders, DeCola spoke up in support of the agreement. ​“Many residents are in favor of the airport that live in Morris Cove,” he said back in 2021.​“I am speaking for the ones that want the airport. They do not show up at meetings because a lot of times they are yelled at or embarrassed. They choose not to come.”

After a Board of Alders meeting earlier this month, DeCola denied that this vote signified support of the airport’s expansion.

“I never said that,” he said when asked about supporting the expansion of the airport. ​“I have no control over that. I cannot control the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration]. I took the airport off the taxpayers’ backs.”

“I’m tired of the bullshit,” DeCola added before cutting the interview short.

Campion: Alders Can Affect Airport

Susan Campion, meanwhile, is also running on an environmentalist platform — focused less on day-to-day, incremental mitigations and more on tackling a primary source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the neighborhood.

Specifically, one of Campion’s core priorities is limiting Tweed’s expansion. The uptick in flights coming in and out of the airport has already created disruptive levels of noise and odors, she said. She believes that the airport’s pollution has contributed to illnesses among her neighbors, as with airports in other areas.

“We’re the ones who have scientific facts,” said Campion, who helped found the 10,000 Hawks activist group opposed to Tweed airport’s expansion. ​“An individual needs to give credence to the real effects of climate change and how that affects quality of life.”

Campion disputed DeCola’s assertion that alders have no control over the airport’s future.

First, she said, an alder can help ensure that the airport is complying with the terms of the agreements (“like a Wild West cowboy adhering to city ordinances,” she said.) When it comes to late night flights, ​“we were promised none after 10 p.m.,” said Campion. She said that planes often take off after that point, especially in the case of delays. 

And ​“I would use leverage I have as an alder to keep the questions coming,” Campion said. She’d engage the city’s relatively new sustainability director, Steve Winter. And she’d continue to coordinate with 10,000 Hawks activists on strategies to prevent the airport’s growth.

Campion grew up in Morris Cove and has lived with her husband in the beachside house where she spent her childhood for the last 33 years. She currently serves as the president of the Connecticut Association of Addiction Professionals. Previously, she led Cornell Scott Hill Health Center’s HIV/AIDS division.

Campion said she decided to run for alder this year because conversations with her neighbors made ​“apparent the frustration, sense of being disrespected, ignored, dismissed by elected officials” that others in the ward were feeling.

If elected, Campion promised to hold regular town halls with constituents. She hopes to bring more police into the area, quicken police response times to issues like car burglaries, and to ensure that parks are locked down by 8 p.m. She said she would connect with parents at Nathan Hale to learn more about the mental health crisis that many children are experiencing.

As for tackling her area of expertise, Campion said she would like to ensure that addiction services are coordinated and integrated with other kinds of healthcare. She said she would hold off on supporting harm reduction policies like safe injection sites ​“unless there was a thorough investigation of current research outcome studies.”

More broadly, Campion said, she would approach a seat on the Board of Alders the same way she’s approached family, marriage, and addiction counseling throughout her career.

When faced with a complaint from a constituent, Campion said, she would first ​“take a history”: collect facts about the situation. She’d make a ​“diagnosis”: identify the problem. And then she’d develop ​“action steps”: how can the problem be treated?

From her experience helping clients address substance use disorder and work through difficulties in their relationships, Campion said, she’s learned that ​“the most important thing in any relationship is listening.” That it’s important to balance a firm point of view with a commitment to ​“find that common center of agreement.” 

And that ​“even in very tough situations, it’s important to keep a sense of humor.”