Thomas MacMillan Photo
Grimes (center) & Butler (right) joined 300 CCNE agenda-setters.
Picture this: A new “jobs pipeline” funnels cash from big development projects into community centers that train young people for jobs created by the new projects. Employment goes up; crime goes down; everyone wins.
That’s one vision of tackling several big New Haven problems at once. Over 300 people applauded the plan in the cafeteria at Conte-West Hills School in Wooster Square, where it was pitched at a “Citywide Community Leaders Meeting.”
The event was put on by Connecticut Center for a New Economy (CCNE), a 10-year-old grassroots group of union, clergy, and neighborhood leaders, affiliated with Yale’s unions. According to leaders, the organization has an annual budget of $300,000. Half of that money comes from unions, the other half from grants from progressive foundations. Organizers affiliated with the group (acting in other organizational capacities) played a crucial role in helping to elect a new incoming majority on New Haven’s Board of Aldermen — a majority in search of an agenda.
At Saturday morning’s three-hour event, people from various city neighborhoods — including a significant number of local and state lawmakers — talked about the problems they’d like to see addressed in New Haven.
They then got a sneak peek at CCNE’s “Grassroots Community Agenda,” a report that the group has been working on for several years, which will be officially released on Thursday.
The document seeks to distill public opinion — expressed in door-to-door research and in many small community meetings — on what New Haven’s priorities should be. At the top of the list: jobs and public safety.
Participants listen to Jackson.
Among several “very, very general” solutions, organizer Mandi Jackson explained to applause what a “jobs pipeline” might look like. She used a well-received PowerPoint slide of new community centers springing up on a map of New Haven. After more discussion, attendees filled out yellow “commitment cards” pledging to keep the conversation going in their neighborhoods.
Gwen Mills, a union organizer and a leader in CCNE, said the next step is to analyze the results of the morning’s discussions and continue the work of clarifying the group’s vision.
Union leaders characterized the slew of newly elected pro-labor aldermen this year as simply an organic emergence of neighborhood leaders. The historic sweep of aldermanic seats came without an articulation of a clear, unified legislative agenda by the union-backed slate.
Is the Grassroots Community Agenda — put out by a union-affiliated organization — the new union-affiliated aldermanic legislative agenda that bystanders have been expecting?
“That’s not what it’s about,” said Brian Wingate, alderman-elect for Beaver Hills. His only agenda comes from his constituents, he said. There will be overlap between what his constituents tell him and what the report says, but that’s only because CCNE has been out talking to the community, he said.
“Their interest is people. As alderman, my interest is people.”
Scenes Of Discontent
Edwina Brown, center.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, the Conte-West Hills School cafeteria was a veritable who’s who of local politics and community activism. Past, current, and future members of the Board of Aldermen spread out at cafeteria tables with members of community management teams, ward Democratic committee members, and activist neighbors. A handful of local state legislators dotted the crowd, along with a couple of recent mayoral candidates and several members of Occupy New Haven.
People at each table, guided by a facilitator, discussed the top issues confronting New Haven. The conversations ranged from the systemic to the personal.
The table where Newhallville’s Dennis Grimes sat kept erupting into applause. People clapped after he decried cops at road construction sites who talk on their cell phones while earning big bucks. He said he’d be happy to direct traffic for minimum wage.
At another table, 19-year-old LaToya Agnew complained about the disparities between schools in New Haven. Some have more resources than others, she said.
At the same table, Westville’s Jennifer Klein said, “The way the city operates is secretive.” She said her local ward Democratic committee is anything but.
Across the room, a group arranged on kid-sized chairs was discussing a more personal theme, led by facilitator Renae Reese, CCNE’s executive director: What makes you feel empowered?
Livable City Initiative staffer Zephaniah Ben-Elohim (pictured) spoke about being raised by his “elders” including his great-grandparents. As the eldest child, he had leadership thrust upon him, he said.
At a table by the cafeteria’s large windows, Newhallville’s Edwina Brown said all New Haven’s problems can be tied in some way to racial discrimination.
On Brown’s left, Renae Haywood said if you’re mugged anywhere near Yale downtown, 50 cops are going to show up. Anywhere else you won’t be able to find a cop, she said.
On Brown’s right, Fair Haven’s Pat Bissel said she just wants a new fence put up on Front Street.
Meet The Pipeline
Mandi Jackson.
Shortly after 10:30 Mills called for the room’s attention and began the segue into the presentation of the new Grassroots Community Agenda, which will be officially released on Thursday.
Through years of home visits and community meetings, CCNE has found that the top issues facing New Haven are jobs and economic development, and crime, violence, and public safety, she said. Following closely behind are education and schools, and youth issues like jobs for teens and building new community centers.
Mills said the new report is “not some overall solution.” It’s an analysis of what the community thinks and some ideas of where to go, she said, before handing the mic off to Jackson, the report’s author.
Jackson ran through some PowerPoint slides showing the growth of income inequality in the country since the mid ‘70s and the drop in the incomes that came with a transition in New Haven from manufacturing to service sector jobs.
She spoke about racial disparities between Newhallville — where 27 percent of families are living below the poverty level — and neighboring East Rock, where 27 percent are earning more than $100,000 a year.
She contrasted the visions presented on the economic development websites of New Haven — where a stated goal is to become a “destination city” — and that of Los Angeles, which talks about “building a thriving middle class” and “creating more and higher quality jobs.”
New Haven is seeing development in several forms, Jackson said, mentioning Downtown Crossing, Higher One’s transformation of the old Winchester factory, planned train station improvements, and new Yale residential colleges. “The most expensive college dormitories in the history of the world,” Jackson said.
“New development means new jobs,” Jackson said. The questions are what kind of jobs they will be and — shouted by the room — “Who’s going to get them?”
Jackson then laid out the Grassroots Community Agenda’s three possible solutions:
• First, require developers to make “Community Impact Reports” before they come in to start projects in New Haven.
• Second, create Community Benefits Agreements that define what the developers will do for local communities to guarantee community support.
• Third, create a “jobs pipeline program,” a “comprehensive coordinated program” supported by the city.
Moving beyond the scope of the report, Jackson began to talk about what such a pipeline could look like.
“Say a major employer comes to town,” Jackson said. “They get major tax dollars to do that.” What if a portion of that money went toward creating a community center with youth and apprenticeship programs and job training? What if the center became a “hiring hall” where the new employer is required to find its new workers?
“Imagine if we did this all over the city,” Jackson said. Her next slide showed community centers bouncing onto a map of New Haven. It was followed by slides of new developments — like Downtown Crossing, Higher One — popping up and sending funding to and hiring from the centers.
Dream Or Nightmare?
As the meeting moved on to its next phase, Dixwell’s Sadie Cooper (pictured) was already sold on the vision. “We’ve got to make it happen,” said the 49-year-old hospital radiologist.
She said the pipeline would decrease crime, help young people, and create jobs. After someone handed her a yellow “commitment card,” she immediately promised to talk to five people about what she was taking away from the meeting.
Elsewhere, people weren’t so optimistic. Back at Grimes’ table, he was saying that developers rarely follow through with their promises to hire locals, even after requiring workers like him to obtain multiple OSHA certifications and being trained in things like lead abatement.
Westville’s Tony Butler said forcefully that there needs to be a mechanism to force developers to stick to their promises, maybe by withholding public financing until they’re kept. “The money has to stop!”
A couple of tables over, Westville’s Arthur Lindley (pictured) said the rules and requirements have already made New Haven an “incredibly expensive city for developers.”
“I run construction projects,” he said. “I did this school” when it was renovated years ago, he said.
Ideas like “living wage” requirements may backfire, pushing builders “to the point where no one will be hired,” he suggested.
Lindley cautioned against local-hiring requirements. “From a business point of view it’s a nightmare. Businesses will not come here.”
Jim Berger, sitting nearby, argued otherwise. “New Haven is a large market,” he said. “We have enough leverage.”
That may be true for the biggest developers, Lindley said. But, “a lot of medium-size contractors won’t touch New Haven.”
“I say too bad for them,” Berger replied.
Despite his reservations, Lindley checked all three boxes on his commitment card, pledging to talk to five people, knock on doors, and even hold a meeting at his house.
Impossibly Possible
After closing announcements, as the meeting broke up, Brown wasn’t feeling optimistic.
“How is this going to be effective?” she asked.
It’s fine and good that all these people came together from different neighborhoods to have a talk about what’s wrong with the city, but New Haven is still too segregated to allow for real citywide cooperation, she said.
“We’re all too different,” she said. “I see everybody’s pumped up. It means nothing to me.”
Gwen Mills.
“I think a lot of people feel hopeless,” Mills said moments later, as she tucked into the chicken, ziti, and salad lunch provided to meeting participants.
“We’re trying to have people break out of what Edwina [Brown] is saying,” Mills said.
People have seen a lot of initiatives “launch with gusto” only to “peter out,” Mills said.
Real change will seem like it can’t happen until it starts happening, she said. “It’s going be impossible until suddenly it’s possible.”
This is ridiculous, and missing the real point.
This pipeline already exists, and it is called the New Haven Public School system.
The schools should already be preparing people for these jobs. if they are not, then you shouldn't be forcing private companies to build a different school system to train people. You should fix the school system we have.
What these people are talking about, in essence, is a tax on incoming businesses to train workers. Just tax them for the first three years, and use that money to spend on education...but NO ONE should pay more into these schools until they are fixed.
The real problem is a broken education system in New Haven, and a mayor who would rather build schools than teach children.