Staff Photos
Ward 26 alder candidates Darryl Brackeen Jr., Joshua Van Hoesen.
Joshua Van Hoesen got a preview of what he’d hear on the Upper Westville campaign trail when he moved into his new house — and saw all the lead paint on the porch and the sump pump at work in the basement.
Darryl Brackeen has heard a lot about sinking houses and water-caused damage in the six years he has represented the neighborhood.
So Van Hoesen and Brackeen have found themselves focused on water — as well as trees and speeding drivers — as they ask Ward 26’s voters to elect them to the Board of Alders in the Nov. 5 general election.
Racially diverse Ward 26 — a work of gerrymandered artistry that covers much of the Beverly Hills neighborhood and Upper Westville, then leaps above several other wards to encompass part of Norton Street and its environs — is one of only four in town where Republicans are fielding candidates this year (three of them endorsed at a convention, a fourth as a petition candidate).
In interviews on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program, Republican challenger Van Hoesen and Democratic incumbent Brackeen spoke at length about the nuts-and-bolts issues facing “an entire neighborhood built on lakes and ponds,” as Brackeen put it.
Mayor Rice Inspiration
Allan Appel Photo
Van Hoesen makes a campaign call at Fire & Slice BBQ Smokehouse and Pizzeria on Townsend Avenue during 2018 state legislative run..
New Haven’s Republicans, outnumbered 16 – 1 on the voting rolls, have no one serving on the 30-member Board of Alders. Van Hoesen said he’s running in part to add another perspective to a one-party board, where he said lack of democracy and transparency has “led to some poor decisions.” He said he’s also running to promote more efficiency and better project management in government. As a team-leading software designer for a company that equips nonprofits with financial accounting software, he praised IT improvements city government has made and welcomed the chance to participate in building on them.
Van Hoesen has run for office twice before, across town in Morris Cove. He moved into a new home on Ward 26’s West Prospect Street in March. The home was built in 1910.
“There was a pond where my house was” in the past, he noted. “I have water in my basement still.” (The upside: “Great soil” for gardening.)
And he has lead paint throughout the place. The bill to remediate it will come to between $15,000 and $20,000. That gave him a taste of the citywide challenge citywide as New Haven wrestles with how to do a better job enforcing the law. He said he’s not convinced that the answer lies in hiring more inspectors; better management may be at least equally important.
He has also noticed all the speeding on streets like Anthony, a cut-through from Fountain to Whalley. He spoke of promoting a “culture of accountability” where citizens play a role — by, for instance, enlisting schoolchildren to make yard signs in art class riffing on the “Drive like you live here” message.
Besides knocking on doors, Van Hoesen has been boning up on how New Haven has tackled issues for centuries, by reading Douglas W. Rae’s classic New Haven text City: Urbanism and Its End. He found inspiration in the work of Frank Rice, the four-term Republican “sidewalk mayor,” first elected in 1909, who focused more on street-level improvements and realizable “small changes” than on grand theories. Van Hoesen said he doesn’t subscribe to a libertarian “government’s not for anything” philosophy. He feels government plays a role as a “needed organizing force” to tackle collective challenges. But government isn’t there for everything” and doesn’t always provide the best vehicle for solving broader societal problems, he argued.
Paulishen Inspiration
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Brackeen walks Beverly Hills with LCI’s Rick Mazzadra & Lillian Driscoll to explore Airbnbissue.
Darryl Brackeen found his initial political inspiration at Hillhouse High School, in the civics class of the late teacher Jack Paulishen.
Both in the classroom and on a memorable D.C. trip, Paulishen imbued Brackeen with the conviction that government matters and a person can make a difference in his home town. He also taught him how to debate issues with respect.
“What we could use a little more [today] is a lesson from Jack Paulishen about how to stand on opposite sides of the aisle” with “ethics and decorum,” Brackeen argued.
Brackeen said he has sometimes called himself the “alder of the trees and the lakes and the ponds” during his three two-year terms based on the volume of related concerns he hears from constituents.
He pushed for resuscitating the Environmental Advisory Council, which now plays an active role developing green proposals. He has pushed proposals to deal with climate change, including the recently passed climate emergency resolution, which Brackeen introduced and championed. And, he said, he has helped constituents get old trees trimmed and removed trees replaced.
“These trees are hundreds of years old” and form a “beautiful canopy” in the neighborhood, he noted.
Brackeen has worked to have the city replace curbs (which erode due to the degrading soil), have gas lines reinstalled, and add traffic-calming measures like speed bumps. A number of streets in the ward have received improvements; Brackeen said overall “the responsiveness has not been great” downtown and needs improvement. With fellow Alder Richard Furlow, Brackeen also supported State Rep. Pat Dillon’s successful quest to get money for neighborhood “sinking homes.”
Brackeen led a charge to have the city examine regulating Airbnbs like one that was causing problems in Beverly Hills. He said he wants to see a government “conversation” about the broader issue of how to deal with the growing “sharing economy.” (Read more about that here.)
Brackeen, who serves as executive director of the YMCA’s youth center, backed some of the proposed, but failed, budget-transparency policy amendments in the latest budget-making season.
In this year’s Democratic mayoral primary, he supported Democratic challenger Justin Elicker. Van Hoesen said he too is at this point planning to vote Elicker; he said he’s “excited” about new faces and new ideas in New Haven government.
The date for the municipal election is November 5th, not November 10th, as stated in the article.
I believe that Alder Brackeen has been in office for far longer than the 6 years mentioned in the article. In fact, the boundary lines for Ward 26 were significantly changed after the 2010 census and subsequent redistricting. This "gerrymandered artistry that covers much of the Beverly Hills neighborhood and Upper Westville" was created in part due to the fact that Alder Brackeen moved so the and the Ward lines were manipulated to accommodate his new residence. Just one side of one street prior to the Woodbridge town line were included in Ward 26 for Mr. Brackeen.
There seems to be a serious discrepancy in this article where it states that Alder Brackeen "cast a dissenting vote against the controversial 2018 11 percent tax increase". According to an article written by Thomas Breen and published by the New Haven Independent on May 30, 2018, "The only alders to vote against the adoption of the general fund budget as amended by the full board were Roth, Winter, Festa, Santana, and Newhallville Alder Kimberly Edwards."
Alder Brackeen may have voted for some of the amendments that were defeated by the Alders but unless the Independent article is incorrect, Alder Brackeen voted for the major 11% tax increase. I would hope that Alder Brakeen corrects this apparent major error in the report.
I will be happy to learn more about candidate Van Hoesen in the coming days and perhaps cast my vote for him. It is indeed a rare opportunity in New Haven to have a contested race for Alder since most general elections feature members of only one political party.
Perhaps the two candidates will arrange for some type of joint discussion or debate where issues like the ones I mentioned can be more fully explored.
[Paul: Thanks for catching that mistake on the date! Fixed. Brackeen first ran for alder in 2011 but lost that race. He won in 2013, 2015, and 2017.]