Harp On Pepe’s: ​“People Entitled To Point Of View”

Toni Harp prefers to eat at Ernie’s rather than Pepe’s, but she’s not looking to stop other pizza-lovers from lining up at the famous Wooster Street restaurant.

Harp declined to join the Facebook movement to boycott Pepe’s Apizza (aka Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana), when she was asked about it Monday.

“People are entitled to their point of view,” Harp during her latest appearance on WNHH FM’s ​“Mayor Monday” program. Harp noted that she herself doesn’t stand in line at Pepe’s; her family has long made Ernie’s Pizzeria on Whalley Avenue its go-to destination for pies. But, she said, ​“people, if they like Pepe’s, they should continue to go. We’ve got to allow people to express what they believe.”

As originally reported in this article by the New Haven Register’s Ben Lambert, some Facebook users objected to photos that a Pepe’s co-owner posted on the social-media platform. One showed him holding a sign reading ​“Deplorables for Trump.” Another thanked Trump for allegedly helping the domestic steel industry. Critics called for a boycott based on his public expression of support for the president.

This past weekend, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy also weighed in against a boycott. Here’s what Murphy tweeted on the subject: ​“I don’t like going to stores that mistreat their employees or take my money and give big donations to right wing causes. But I don’t feel like I’m less of a progressive by going to a biz whose owner is a Trump supporter. Feel like that kind of line drawing would be exhausting.”

Duff’s Respects

Also on ​“Mayor Monday,” Harp offered an update on Police Capt. Anthony Duff, who left the hospital last week after 10 days recovering from having been shot while confronting a murderer. Duff is now at home recuperating.

Harp said she, Acting Chief Otoniel Reyes and Duff went to Howard K. Hill funeral home Friday to attend the funeral of another man shot in the same incident, Troy Clark. Despite his injuries, Duff joined Harp in climbing the front steps and standing at the door and greeting everyone who came inside. ​“He is such a gentleman” who is ​“willing to extend himself … to let everyone know we value everybody,” Harp said.

Promise & Magnets

New Haven Promise Executive Director Patricia Melton joined Harp on ​“Mayor Monday.” She reported that her scholarship and mentoring organization is helping send more than 350 New Haven high school graduates to a freshman year of college this fall. She also said the organization experimented with a ​“grad bag” event for incoming frosh struggling to pay the bills. Seventy-five families came to Metropolitan Business Academy to pick up donated mattress pads, comforters, sheets, mirrors and other supplies for their dorm rooms. Melton said she hopes to expand the program next year.

On the program, Harp was asked about efforts by Board of Education members to win state approval to open up more seats in city magnet schools to city families. Harp said she agrees with that goal. She called for having New Haven renegotiate with the state to reserve up to 75 percent, rather than 65 percent, of seats in New Haven magnet schools for New Haveners. ​“New Haven parents do not understand why their children can’t go to these schools,” she said.

Melton said that since the launch of New Haven Promise nine years ago, the city’s public school enrollment has grown while other Connecticut urban systems have seen declining enrollment. She said the promise of debt-free or almost debt-free college through Promise has helped convince families to send their children to New Haven schools, including magnets, thereby upping the demand.

New Haven Promise in recent years has focused on helping students stay in college once they get there. Some 67 percent of New Haven ​“scholars” now finish four-year college programs in which they enroll, Melton reported. Nationwide, the figure is 59 percent for all students enrolling in four-year programs, she said.

WNHH’s ​“Mayor Monday” is made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.