Three Mayors Walk Into A Room …

To mark opening of SCSU archives and an exhibit on the post-urban renewal era.

The occasion was an opening reception Thursday night of an exhibit inside the lobby of the SCSU’s Lyman Center for the Performing Arts.

The exhibit served as a formal launch for a new archive housed both online and in hundreds of boxes inside SCSU’S Buley Library: ​“The Mayoral Papers Collection.” (Click here for a previous story that goes into detail about the collection and the four mayors’ legacies. Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to arrange a visit.) The ​“Mayoral Papers” trove of documents — hundreds of thousands of pages worth of speeches, memos, photographs, newspaper clippings, bond agreements, flyers, inaugural gala programs, airport agreements, contracts — charts the tenure of four mayors who led the city for a collective 40 years: Biagio ​“Ben” DiLieto” (1980 – 1989), John Daniels (1990 – 1993), John DeStefano (1994 – 2013), and Toni Harp (2014 – 2019).

The world has paid a lot of attention to their predecessor, Richard C. Lee (1954 – 1969), who oversaw the nation’s most intensive per-capita effort to rebuild a city and attempt to eradicate poverty during the urban renewal era. Lee’s papers are at Yale.

The SCSU exhibit unveiled Thursday evening makes a case for seeing the four mayors as connected. The exhibit is called ​“Righting Urban Renewal: Four Mayors Grapple with the Legacy of Urban Renewal.” It tracks how the four mayors — for all their distinct emphases and personalities — spent decades in a common quest: trying to learn from the physical and social mistakes of the urban renewal era, redefine the modern city as an alternative (rather than echo) of suburbia, and stitch it back together. Think rebuilt Downtown with its arts community and restaurants and state-leading urban-core residential district. Think community policing, Compstat, immigration reform and the rebirth of Fair Haven, the Yale homebuyer program and New Haven Promise. Think Downtown Crossing.

That perspective has informed much of the work of Neil Proto (pictured at the event). DiLieto enlisted Proto, a New Haven attorney, to fight the construction of a proposed mall in North Haven that threatened to cannibalize what was left of downtown retail. Proto has dug deep into the urban renewal era since then, publishing much of his findings in the 2020 book Fearless. Proto lent the original trove of documents and then fronted money that got the new SCSU mayoral archive up and running. Thursday’s event was in part a tribute to his role …

… and to the role of library staffers who spent years meticulously gathering, arranging, and digitizing the archives, such as Jacqueline Toce and Patrick Crowley (pictured) …

… as well as political science professors Jonathan Wharton (pictured outside the gathering) and Tess Marchant-Shapiro, who conducted oral-history interviews and rooted in attics to add materials that didn’t show up in the official papers of the mayors or their aides.

It was also an evening to take note of devoted public servants who spent decades working for a number of the mayors to put ambitious ideas into practice. Karyn Gilvarg (above left) worked for all four, starting in the development administration, retiring as City Plan director, playing an unsung role in rebuilding New Haven. Rebecca Bombero (center) has continued serving in a top city role under the current administration after playing a trusted role under both DeStefano and Harp. DeStefano justifiably earned credit for the state’s largest-ever reconstruction and modernization of a school system’s buildings; Susan Weisselberg (right) did the heavy lifting.

After lifetimes of delivering public remarks, Harp and DeStefano did not speak at the event.

Current Mayor Justin Elicker (pictured) did speak. He mentioned his predecessors’ living ​“archives” as well — the projects they put into place that he now cuts ribbons for when they reach the goal line. The near-completion of the Farmington Canal trail, for instance. Or the upcoming opening of the new Dixwell Community Q House, a cornerstone of Mayor Harp’s legacy.

“We are all so connected across different administrations” reflected Elicker, a first-term mayor just getting started on his own legacy.