Thomas Breen / Zoom photos
Young New Haveners who spoke up at Monday’s budget hearing. Clockwise from top left: Kiana Flores, Jamila Washington, Eva Hana Starkey, Abiba Biao.
Seven-year-old Westville resident Eva Hana Starkey took a breath, leaned towards the camera from her father’s lap, and issued her budget-season plea to city lawmakers:
“I want the Mitchell Library to be open.”
Starkey was the youngest of two dozen members of the public to testify Monday night during the aldermanic Finance Committee’s last public hearing of this year’s budget-making season.
The roughly two-hour virtual meeting was held online via Zoom and YouTube Live. It offered the third and final chance for everyday New Haveners to chime in on Mayor Justin Elicker’s two proposed Fiscal Year 2021 – 2022 (FY22) general fund budgets — a $589.1 million “crisis” version and a $606.2 million “forward together” budget.
It also gave an opportunity for young New Haveners like Starkey to remind the alders that the budget votes they take this year — on issues ranging from climate sustainability initiatives to public library funding — will impact those still not old enough to vote, as well as generations of city residents still to come.
The Finance Committee alders will next deliberate and put forward amendments to a proposed final budget this Thursday. The full Board of Alders then takes up the committee-endorsed budget later this month for debate and a final vote.
“Racial Justice Is Environmental Justice”
Thomas Breen pre-pandemic file photo
New Haven Climate Movement activists outside City Hall in 2019.
Several of the young New Haveners who testified Monday were affiliated with the New Haven Climate Movement (NCHM). They all called on the alders to invest $1.1 million in a local Climate Justice and Green Jobs Fund to hire staff to work on energy efficiency projects, create local green jobs, promote alternative transportation, and fund climate justice education and youth leadership.
“We at the New Haven Climate Movements recognize that the climate crisis not only affects are future and our children’s futures, but also our current reality,” said Co-Op High School senior Kiana Flores.
Through the general fund and with the help of $94 million in federal pandemic-era relief, she said, the city should allocate money towards climate change mitigation, awareness, and resilience efforts, including by hiring full-time staff dedicated to making New Haven “an active, progressive opponent of climate change.”
Amistad High School student Abiba Biao agreed.
“It’s just a relevant and very important problem that New Haven needs to face,” she said about setting aside $1.1 million for the local Climate Justice and Green Jobs Fund.
“Racial justice is environmental justice. Everyone knows that the impacts of climate change will affect people of color the most.”
Poor communities and Black and brown communities are disproportionately affected by air pollution, with African Americans facing the highest impact and related health burden, she said. “There’s a reason why so many Black people have asthma and just worse health conditions in general.”
Biao said that learning about the climate in class and then going outside and learning how to garden has instilled in her a great sense of respect for the planet, as well as a feeling of interconnectedness with the natural world.
“I realize we’re all small pieces in a puzzle, but we can at least try to make a difference.”
With more than $94 million in federal aid coming to City Hall through the American Rescue Act, added ESUMS junior and fellow New Haven Climate Movement member Patricia Joseph, “there’s no better time than now to invest in climate justice, green jobs, infrastructure, clean energy development, and education.”
“I Believe In This City”
Sophie Sonnenfeld photo
Labor supporters paint “Yale: Respect New Haven” on Prospect St.
During her testimony to the committee, Co-Op High School senior Jamila Washington called on the alders to keep the pressure up on Yale University to contribute more to the city’s bottom line.
She recalled joining in on a Yale union-backed street mural project on Prospect Street earlier this month in which she helped paint, “Yale: Respect New Haven.”
“Our city needs resources to enact the legislative agenda to give all our residents opportunities” to thrive, she said.
“As a young person in New Haven, I’ve seen the impact of Yale’s tax break on youth and students,” Washington continued, referring to the university’s largely tax-exempt status, its $31 billion endowment, and its pandemic-era operating surplus surge.
She said she’s seen first hand how little funding there is for extracurricular activities for public school students, for extra academic help for those who need it.
“Many of my friends want to move out of New Haven,” she said. “They don’t think there are opportunities for them to build and grow here. I want to stay in New Haven. I believe in this city, and I believe it can be a place filled with opportunities.”
Washington said the alders need to keep pressuring the university to do right by the city and contribute more financially. “They can’t hide anymore. It’s time for them to step up for racial and economic justice in New Haven.”
“It Gives Me A Warm Feeling”
Lucy Gellman / Arts Paper photo
Westville’s Mitchell library.
And during her brief moment at the virtual mic, Starkey — all of seven years old, sitting on her dad David’s lap — directed the alders’ attention to the budget issue closest to her young heart.
That is, the livelihood of Westville’s Mitchell Branch library.
In the “crisis” version of his proposed budget, the mayor threatened to close down Westville’s library if Yale and the state didn’t contribute a combined $53 million more to the city’s general fund.
While the mayor’s campaign to bring in more money from the state and Yale appears likely to bear fruit, his even floating the idea of closing a libray — and saving between $200,000 and $300,000 out of a $600 million budget — has consistently earned outrage from alders and the public alike.
On Monday night, that chorus of library defenders expanded to include Starkey.
She said the alders should vote to keep the Westville library branch open.
“It gives me information,” she read from some notes she had prepared in advance. “It gives me a nice, good story. It gives me a warm feeling.”
Done with her statement, she covered her eyes with her hands as her dad added, “It is such a wonderful hub for the community.” The alders thanked father and daughter for dialing in.
Before the Starkeys’ video and audio feed cut out to give way to the next speaker, Eva removed her hands from her eyes and turned to her dad.
“That was scary,” she said with a smile. “You did such a great job!” he replied.
And, sure enough, before Monday’s budget hearing was up, Edgewood Alder and Finance Committee Chair Evette Hamilton seemed to grant Eva’s demand.
She stated explicitly that the alders will not be considering the “crisis” version of the budget when they start deliberating on Thursday.
That means that the version that cuts Mitchell Library, along with the East Shore Senior Center and the Whitney Avenue fire station, is for now in the rear view.
“We are only working with the ‘forward together’ budget,” Hamilton said. “That’s what we will be discussing in our points. We do this because the direction of the state budget process gives us cause to begin our deliberations with some optimism. We’re relying on our major partners like Yale University to step up and raise their game. Hundreds of New Haven residents have spoken loud and clear on this point.”
It takes a special kind of cynicism for City officials to propose closing a Library that no one really wants to close, in order to make other cuts more palatable to residents and to coerce certain third parties to chip in. While I deeply appreciate residents' efforts to save our national award-winning Library, I can't help but think that we have so many other important, non-manufactured issues to tackle. The City has wasted residents' time by requiring us to defend an institution that represents the best of New Haven.