Ambassador Jeff Keeps Downtown Masked

Jeff Lee approached a Church Street bus stop, his gloved hands carrying a plastic brochure holder stacked with 60 bright blue surgical masks.

He paused six feet away from a small crowd seeking shelter from the morning cold, then posed a question.

“Does anybody need an extra mask?”

Lee is a Downtown Ambassador with the Town Green Special Services District, one of five employees working on the frontlines of a new mask distribution program designed to keep downtown pedestrians safe and covered up during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the early weeks of the pandemic, public health officials have touted masks that cover one’s mouth and nose as one of the most effective deterrents to transmitting the novel coronavirus. (That’s on top of social distancing.)

For the past 10 months, New Haveners without ready access to face masks have had to rely in part upon one-day pop-ups hosted by the city or by private individuals or groups.

Town Green’s new free mask giveaway program seeks to change that by offering a regular, daily handout led by trusted, familiar faces — like Lee, a 57-year-old Hill native and Westville resident who has worked as a downtown Ambassador for nearly a decade.

Ambassadors have distributed roughly 4,300 free masks since the program launched on Dec. 12, according to Town Green marketing manager Francesca Vignola.

The district’s mask giveaway efforts — a collaboration among Town Green, the city Health Department, and CT Transit — are slated to continue through the end of March, with roughly 120 disposable surgical face masks distributed for free downtown each day.

“I think the more we do this, it makes people more conscious of the need to wear masks,” Lee said during a morning shift this week.

“It encourages people to be vigilant” at a time when over 400,000 Americans have already died from the novel coronavirus — and Covid-19 vaccines are slowly making their way into the arms of broader and broader swaths of the general public.

Walking with Lee offered a master class in public health intervention by a soft-spoken, well-trusted layperson.

Lee has dedicated the past 10 years of his professional life to greeting downtown visitors and passerby, cleaning city sidewalks of trash and clearing them of snow, and the manifold other welcoming tasks undertaken by ambassadors.

“He’s a good man, a very good man,” Catherine Brantley said about Lee as she picked up a free mask near the southeastern corner of Church and Chapel. ​“Mr. Jeff, keep doing your work.”

“This is beautiful,” said Crystal Cofrancesco as she grabbed a new mask by the Chapel Street bus stop on the southern end of the Green. ​“Jeff rocks. He’s amazing.”

Focusing On Bus Stops

Lee began his shift at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Town Green’s headquarters on the ground floor of 900 Chapel St.

He donned disposable rubber gloves and a blue face mask of his own along with the typical wintertime Ambassador uniform — a yellow and blue jacket, a dark blue beanie, a black balaclava covering his neck and the back his head. He filled a plastic brochure holder with 60 new folded masks.

“It’s gone very good so far,” he said as he headed towards the bus stop and shelter outside 55 Church St. ​“I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone” respond negatively.

Lee headed straight to the bus shelter because he knew that that’s where people would be seeking shelter from the cold. They’d also likely be standing in close proximity, he said, making it all the more dangerous if one or multiple people were not wearing masks.

On his way down Church Street, he passed a man with no mask and a winter coat hood pulled up.

“Would you like a mask?” Lee asked.

Tyrone White stopped and said yes. He reached over to Lee’s plastic container and grabbed a mask. Lee kept his eyes down on White’s hands. Lee tries to give out only one mask at a time. If someone needs and asks for two, he’ll agree. He’ll also give out multiple if someone accidentally touches more than one mask.

“And could you put your mask over your mouth and nose?” Lee continued.

White reached into his coat and pulled up a white surgical mask he had hanging around his neck. He smiled then proceeded walking up Church Street.

Lee said that a key part of his giveaway approach is not just to get masks in the hands of people who need them, but also to encourage them to wear those masks so as to protect themselves from potentially contracting the virus.

At the 55 Church bus stop, Lee found a dozen people. He wound up handing out 20 masks.

One of those masks went to Bobby Roberts (pictured), who was waiting for a bus to commute to work.

“I was looking for a mask,” he said appreciatively. When asked how he felt about having someone handing out free masks downtown, Roberts replied, ​“I feel safer.”

“Hey, I need a couple for my kids,” one man said as he saw Lee by the bus stop. Lee gave him two masks.

“Keep yourself safe,” Lee said.

After finding few people walking down Crown Street and up Temple Street, Lee hit the bus stop on the Green across from 900 Chapel St. Another dozen people were standing by the ticket booth or sitting on nearby benches. Roughly three-quarters of those present were already wearing masks.

“Anybody need an extra mask?”

Freddy Brantley (pictured at right) took him up on the offer.

“It’s good,” Brantley said. And then, turning to anyone within hearing distance, he said, ​“You’ve got to wear ​‘em, at least for the next 100 days.”

After picking up a new mask for herself, Cofrancesco described the new reality of having to wear a mask everywhere you go as ​“weird. It’s a pain in the butt.” But it’s necessary, she said, and worth it to stay safe.

As Lee left the Chapel Street bus stop, there were noticeably more masks around mouths and noses in his wake.

When asked about recommendations for other organizations looking to give out masks going forward, Lee offered two takeaways: Focus on places where people often congregate in close quarters, like bus stops. And bring free masks out to the neighborhoods, not just to downtown.

An Iron Worker & ​“People Person”

Spending time with Lee Wednesday morning offered more than just a snapshot of a new public health experiment designed to keep downtown visitors safe during this extraordinary moment.

It also gave an opportunity to spend time with an expert guide to downtown New Haven, past and present, and to learn about the path that led someone like Lee to this humble role of public service.

Born in New York City, Lee moved to New Haven with his family when he was 3 years old when his dad got a construction job in the area.

He grew up on Rosette Street in the Hill — ​“a really quiet area,” he recalled — and graduated from the former Richard C. Lee High School.

Lee then spent 17 years as an iron worker for the company Cianbro. ​“We did work on the Tomlinson Bridge, the Chapel Street bridge, some Metro North bridges,” he said. Work saw him travel out of state to Rhode Island and New York for iron working jobs.

He left that line of work to get a job closer to home when his 11-year-old daughter was struck and killed by a car in 2008 out by their family home in Westville.

In June 2011, he landed the position with Town Green. His wife, meanwhile, is a school bus driver for First Student, and also works for the Urban League.

“I like being outside,” he said about his current work. ​“I think I’m a people person. This is a lot different than beating steel on a bridge. But I like being close to home.”

Walking around downtown streets, Lee recalled coming to these very blocks as a kid, mostly to go to the movies on College Street at the former RKO theater or the former Roger Sherman theater. He’d visit the Chapel Square Mall to grab a meal with his parents.

The pandemic has changed the feel of downtown dramatically, he said.

Before Covid, he would routinely come into contact with between 500 and 700 people out on the street every day. Now that number is closer to 200.

“You just don’t see the foot traffic,” he said. ​“It’s sad.”

And yet, at this particular moment in the trajectory of the pandemic, Lee feels relatively optimistic.

“We’re just trying to think about the positive aspects,” he said. ​“The way we were able to get a vaccine so quickly. How much better prepared we were than in 1918. It’s encouraging.”

Lee then got the pedestrian right-of-way and crossed Chapel and Church, heading east towards Orange Street.

Another bus stop — and more people in need of masks — awaited.