Candidate Has Fair Haven, Ecuador Roots

The story of Alex Guzhnay’s run for Ward 1 alder starts four years ago — when the Fair Haven native got a city-subsidized summer job at a Ferry Street farm.

Guzhnay — a 19-year-old rising sophomore at Yale, a graduate of Amistad High School, and the son of Ecuadorian immigrants — pointed back to that summer work experience through the city’s Youth @ Work program during a recent interview about why he’s running for the Democratic nomination for Ward 1.

The ward covers most of downtown, including a large swath of Yale’s undergraduate residential colleges.

Guzhnay is looking to replace the ward’s current alder, fellow New Haven native Eli Sabin. Sabin has set his political sights on running for the adjacent Ward 7 seat, which in turn will soon be vacated by outgoing Downtown Alder Abby Roth.

When asked about his top priorities if elected, Guzhnay promised to advocate for using the incoming flood of federal pandemic-era aid to invest in youth summer employment programs like Youth @ Work. (Mayor Elicker has proposed and an aldermanic committee has endorsed an initial plan that would see roughly $6.2 million spent this summer on summer concerts, citywide cleanup crews, playground repairs, extended summer camps, neighborhood popup festivals, local artist grants, and a host of other youth-focused activities.)

Guzhnay said he has felt firsthand the transformative impact that gainful employment in a community service project can have on a young New Havener’s experience of the city.

“That’s really what sparked my foray into community involvement,” Guzhnay said about his Youth @ Work job four years ago. ​“I might be young, but I’m getting involved, helping people directly, finding ways of giving back to my community.”

In 2017, as a sophomore in high school, Guzhnay got a Youth @ Work job at the Ferry Street farm run by the local environmental nonprofit New Haven Farms (now called Gather New Haven.)

The farm is located just a few blocks away from where he grew up, and where his family still lives, on Ferry Street near I‑95 on the Fair Haven/Cedar Hill border.

“It was definitely tough” growing up in that area, Guzhnay recalled. He said that part of the city has long struggled with gun violence, poverty, homelessness, and the ever-expanding control of the neighborhood housing market by investor mega-landlords like Mandy Management. ​“It’s easy for any kid in Fair Haven, the Hill, it’s easy to get desensitized.”

Guzhnay said his parents, an electrician’s assistant and a seamstress who migrated from Ecuador to New Haven roughly two decades ago, always encouraged him and his older siblings to work hard at school and to give back through community service.

Working at the Ferry Street Farm for a summer, he got another view on what his neighborhood could look like when people passionate about improving the city work together — and get paid to do it.

He recalled tending to the site’s community garden, planting tomatoes and carrots, and repairing the farm’s fence alongside fellow local teenage employees and a New Haven Farms supervisor.

The job proved more than just a means to pass the time during the summer break.

For one, he got paid for his work. ​“When I had that job, I was able to help my parents out with some bills,” he said.

The summer farm job also showed him that, despite his young age, he could help make his neighborhood a safer, more beautiful, and more community-cohesive place to live.

In the subsequent years, in addition to graduating from Amistad and getting into Yale, Guzhnay has testified at city budget hearings, volunteered at a food pantry run by Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS), become an active member of the Fair Haven Community Management Team, and, most recently, knocked doors to help get his fellow neighborhood residents vaccinated as part of the community-led Vaccinate Fair Haven campaign.

“Running for office at just 19 is definitely a tough and huge decision,” Guzhnay posted on Facebook at the end of last week as he announced his new run for Ward 1 alder. ​“If I’m being honest, there are definitely many things I still have yet to learn and experience. However, I know that using my current knowledge, experiences, and background, as well as continuing to learn from other folks, I’ll work tirelessly as an Alder to serve the city I grew up in and proudly call home. My parents have always told me ​“Sigue luchando mijito” (Keep fighting son!), and that’s exactly what I’m going to keep on doing for my city.”

The ​“Yale Ward”?

Guzhnay recognized that Ward 1 straddles a unique line in New Haven politics and public life.

It primarily consists of, and is usually represented by, Yale undergraduates.

Guzhnay said that he assumed he would know downtown New Haven and Yale’s campus better than most of his collegiate peers given that he grew up in the city. But, after arriving on campus last fall for his freshman year, he realized that this part of the city was as unfamiliar to him as it was to students coming from outside of Connecticut.

Starting at Yale reminded him that his previous experiences downtown largely consisted of going to the occasional summer concert on the Green, or a special-occasion dinner out with his family, or riding the public bus to and from Edgewood Avenue during middle school.

When asked for his take on current town-gown relations, Guzhnay paused.

Personally, he said, ​“I’ve benefited a lot from Yale.” He’s currently on full financial aid, meaning that he and his family do not have to pay for him to attend the prestigious university. He also said that many of his friends growing up in the city were able to take advantage of various summer programs or extracurriculars sponsored by Yale.

Guzhnay also praised the local labor advocacy group New Haven Rising and the Yale unions, Unite Here Locals 34 and 35, for ​“pushing for Yale to stick to its local hiring commitments and to up its voluntary contributions to the city.

Guzhnay said he’s been inspired to see youth-led groups like Ice the Beef partner with New Haven Rising to advocate for greater economic opportunities for young New Haveners.

“It’s a lot more impactful to have youth” at the forefront of that local fight, he said.

“At the end of the day, we’re talking about being proportionate,” he continued in reference to Yale’s relationship to the city: While the university currently does a lot, it can and should do more — especially given its incredible wealth and largely tax-exempt status, and the relative poverty and great need of the surrounding city.

As far as Ward 1‑specific priorities go, Guzhnay said he supported Sabin’s and Roth’s proposed ordinance using GPS trackers to limit trash truck early-morning noise. He said he’d support safer ways to get around the neighborhood by foot and by bike. And he said he’ll support zoning reforms designed to promote the creation of affordable housing.

Ward 1 is ​“often perceived as a Yale ward,” Guzhnay said. ​“I’m not coming at this from a Yale perspective. I’m coming at it as a person who grew up in a grittier neighborhood of New Haven.”

Who’s Running For What, So Far?

The City Clerk’s office is keeping a running tally on its website of which candidates have filed to run for which offices in this year’s municipal elections. See below, or click here, for a full list of candidates who have filed papers to run for various local posts so far. And click here to read about key upcoming dates on the municipal election calendar.

Mayor
Justin Elicker, Democrat (incumbent)
Karen DuBois-Walton, Democrat
Mayce Torres, Democrat
Elena Grewal, Democrat (exploratory committee only)

City Clerk
Michael Smart, Democrat (incumbent)

Board of Alders
Ward 1: Alex Guzhnay, Democrat
Ward 5: Kampton Singh, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 7: Eli Sabin, Democrat
Ward 14: Carmen Flores, Democrat
Sarah Miller, Democrat
Ward 18: Salvatore DeCola, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 20: Delphine Clyburn, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 22: Jeanette Morrison, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 26: Darryl Brackeen Jr., Democrat (incumbent)
Joshua Van Hoesen, Republican
Ward 28: Shafiq Abdussabur, Democrat
Ward 30: Honda Smith, Democrat (incumbent)

Board of Education, District 1
Ed Joyner, Democrat