Mayor Chews, Chills With City Youth

Mayor Toni Harp joined a group of more than 30 students from all over the city for a ​“chew and chill” to check in with constituents who she said will one day run New Haven.

The ​“Free Eats & Chill event,” held at Whalley Pizza Friday afternoon, was organized by Harp’s reelection campaign in collaboration with the anti-violence youth organization Ice the Beef.

Some of the attendees were University of New Haven poli sci students like senior Carolyn Olortegui, 20, and sophomore Jordan Harris,19 , both pictured talking with Harp in the top photo. They are student representatives for their campus chapters of the Latin American Student Association and the the NAACP, respectively.

Many of the teens in the room were fresh off a trip to Hartford for the annual Connecticut YMCA Youth and Government Legislative Conference, where they were among 230 students from around the state learning about how government works and to participate in mock legislative sessions. Eliza Vargas, 17, a Co-Op student (at right in photo), got to sit in the Youth Senate as part of the New Haven delegation.

Harp, pictured speaking with 18-year-old Javion Hinds, said she was glad to hear they were interested in government, reminding them that she’d served in the state Senate for 21 years.

“It’s important that you be active and engage politically,” she said. ​“I learned that once you’re born, everything from who your parents are, the air you breathe to the schools you go to are all decided politically, so politics make a difference.”

She asked for their help keeping the youth ​“high on the city’s agenda.” To do, she told them, she needs their help getting reelected. She encouraged them to get registered to vote if they are old enough and to work for her campaign.

Eliza Vargas, Roenaja Moore, and Jalen Jordan took Harp up on that offer to register to vote, learning during Friday’s event that as long as they turn 18 before the mayoral election, they can sign up before their birthdays.

Harp, pictured speaking to longtime supporter Sherry Lopez, noted that under her administration the city has taken on youth violence by, for instance, making summer jobs available. She told the students that she has focused on the youth because she wanted them to be ready to fill her shoes one day.

Lopez, pictured with her daughter Marlena, and Melody, 5 and Romell, 13, said she continues to support Harp because the mayor has done a lot for the city and she hasn’t met a candidate that has ​“shown her anything different.”

“I’m a big supporter of the mayor,” she said. ​“All day.”

Harp (pictured with Youth Legislature Lt. Gov. Juan Patterson and UNH’s Harris and Olortegui) told the young people gathered that ​“it’s important that we have a city that respects its young people.”

On her way out, Melody Lopez had something to tell the mayor.

“You’re doing a good job,” she said, earning her a big hug.

Click the Facebook Live video below to here the mayor’s remarks.