Dancers, drillers, and high-octane divisions like the James Hillhouse Band (pictured) filled Dixwell Avenue Sunday for an annual parade that added new dimensions to the spirit of a fictional character named Freddy Fixer.
Between 80 to 90 units, with upwards of 600 participants, marched from Dixwell down York Street, then up Chapel to the Green, according to parade organizer Larry Young.
Young (pictured) picked up the organizing mantle from longtime Dixwell environmentalist Ed Grant, who started the parade in 1963 and used to bring groups of neighbors out with brooms literally to clean up their streets. The fictional character of Freddy Fixer was created as a symbol for sweeping the streets.
The parade climaxes weeks of events in Freddy Fixer’s name. Young spoke of how organizers have built on the original Freddy’s mission to update it to the community’s current-day needs. They still sweep the streets; 300 people participated in a May 6 community clean-up along the parade route. But they added, among other events, a “wealth-building” seminar to encourage people to start businesses as well as “Stop the Violence” tours aimed at gang-banging teens. Cops kept a close eye Sunday on teens hanging back from the crowd along the route, mindful of a recent alliance between the Newhallville-based VIlle gang and a gang in the Hill. They’re allegedly taking on an alliance of the Tre, from the Kensington area, and the Dixwell-based Tribe. There were rumors of violence leading up to the event; as of 4 p.m., by the time the parade had finished its course through Dixwell, there were no reports of major problems, just a few minor skirmishes broken up quickly by police.
Instead it was a celebration of positive communal activity that takes place in New Haven’s neighborhoods every day, such as the Mob Squad drill team, which picked up the beat for the crowds of people lining the sidewalk Sunday.
The freddie Fixer gets shorter shorter every year. The tradition is getting old