INNER-CITY NEWS

INNER-CITY NEWS July01 27, 2016- -February August 02, THE INNER-CITY NEWS February , 2017 07 ,2016 2017

Financial Justice Key Focus Housing at 2016 NAACP Convention It’s Not Perfect, ButaAffordable Appeals Act Works New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS 22172213 Volume 21 No. 2194

1,500 Take Stand Against Trump’s Ban

“DMC”

Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime”

Ackee,

Dr. King held a mirror up to a nation's values

No Saltfish Snow in July?

Color Struck?

Ninth Square Market II Caribbean Style restaurant. It opened three weeks ago at 89 George St.

Page 9

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A&I Honors Social

Entrepreneur Majora Carter

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

A&I Honors Social Entrepreneur Majora Carter

by BRIAN SLATTERY NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

“Majora Carter’s in the house!”

Nancy Yao Massbach shouted from the podium in the ballroom of the Omni Hotel. Massbach was one of the award chairs for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas’ Visionary Leadership Award, given in the previous six years to women at the vanguard of journalism, activism, and the arts.

This year’s award went to Carter, who is at the forefront of urban revitalization with her work as an activist and entrepreneur in Hunts Point, a neighborhood in the South Bronx.

Carter outlined her story and philosophy in a conversation at Wednesday’s event with moderator, activist, and educator Dena Simmons, who Carter called “another fierce girl from the Bronx.”

Carter said she grew up in the Bronx “literally at a time when it was burning.” Even at 7 years old, “all I wanted to do was leave.” But as she got older and visited other places — even other parts of the city — she saw that “there was no such thing as an unsalvageable community,” and saw that she could try to do something about her own neighborhood.

She grounded her work in a compelling question: “How do you create a community that shows you don’t have to move out of a neighborhood to live in a better one?”

She started off in environmental work geared toward making her neighborhood more sustainable, helping establish Sustainable South Bronx and Green for All. But she quickly saw how those efforts were inextricably linked to economic and social issues. People in her neighborhood wanted parks. But they also wanted coffee shops, restaurants, and bookstores — and went to other neighborhoods to spend their money in them.

That led Carter to a realization: “This is how gentrification starts,” she said — not when white artists

start moving in, but before that, “when you tell kids that there’s no value in the community.” She wondered instead if there was a way to self-gentrify, a phrase she’d heard from a university president at an all-black college seeking to develop the poor neighborhood next to its campus. Maybe Hunts Points could engage in “development that’s by us and for us.”

So she struck out on her own as a consultant and, in time, real estate developer. She co-founded Bronx Tech Meetup and StartUpBox Software Services to make and keep

tech jobs in the neighborhood. She works with Google, Cisco, and other companies that rely on technology.

In real estate, she’s currently working on a two-block-long development in the neighborhood that has both apartments and businesses. She urges others to do the same — to “stay one step ahead of the development game by becoming developers themselves.”

The A&I award isn’t her first. She’s been lauded by Goldman Sachs and the MacArthur Foundation, and was one of the first people to give a TED talk.

And yes, she opened that coffee shop, the Boogie Down Grind Café.

“We reinvent ourselves every day,” Carter said to Simmons at the Omni Hotel luncheon. But more pointedly, she realized that, in her own case, “I don’t have a choice.”

“I could show you all the rejection letters that I get to this day,” she added. But “I’m still here.”

Carter’s message was all part of the general message of the A&I’s luncheon, which also featured a fond sendoff one of many to come for A&I’s outgoing executive director, Mary Lou Aleskie. Anne Calabresi, A&I’s founding director (among many other things) called her “our in-house visionary.” Aleskie is departing A&I for a similar position at Dartmouth College.

Mayor Toni Harp tied Carter’s work to the broader political climate, saying that “we find ourselves in the shadow” of policies that seek to “isolate” and “alienate” us.

“We must redouble our efforts to seek common ground,” Harp said.

“There is still a lot of work to do in this country.” Turning to Carter with gratitude, she said, “we need you.”

After Carter’s conversation with Simmons, she was presented with the physical embodiment of the A&I award. The ceramic plate, it was explained, was modeled after a design by artist Sol LeWitt.

Carter graciously accepted it. “I have always wanted my very own Captain America shield,” she said.

Everyone laughed.

It’s Not Perfect, But Affordable Housing Appeals Act Works

By CT Senator Gary Winfield It is effective, enduring, and revenue neutral. It has already helped thousands of Connecticut families and has the potential to help half a million more households currently spending too much for housing.

Equally important, it positions the state for future economic growth and stability.

Yet the Affordable Housing Appeals Act unsympathetically referred to by its statutory designation (Section) “8-30g,” is derided by critics as

an intrusion on the sovereignty of Connecticut’s municipalities.

What’s true?

Frankly, all of it.

Since it was enacted by the General Assembly in 1990 as a slight variation on an already successful Massachusetts statute, 8-30g has provided families with housing choices in dozens of municipalities that they wouldn’t have had a prayer of moving to.

The reason: 8-30g stipulates that, if less than 10 percent of a town’s housing stock is guaranteed by a deed restriction or government assistance to remain affordable for up to 40 years after it was built — in other words, if the town has too few choices for low- and moderateincome people to live in — a developer can override local zoning to build mixed-income housing.

At least 30 percent of the new units must be affordable for people making less than 80 percent of the median income.

Thousands of families have benefitted. They want what all of us want: access to jobs, highresource schools for their children, healthcare, childcare, fresh food, and other vital services.

Towns that have excluded those families — zoned for, or otherwise allowed, little affordable housing to be built — not surprisingly dislike the idea that a developer can buy a parcel and build such housing.

But the law provides them with very reasonable protections: the housing can’t be built if it threatens public health or safety; or towns can proactively allow for enough construction to reach the 10 percent threshold that permanently exempts

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them; or, alternatively, they can construct a smaller number of affordable homes and qualify for a 4-year moratorium from such developments.

So, yes, in 26 years, the law has worked. More than 5,000 affordable homes have been built, about twice that number of modest market-rate units have also been constructed, and towns such as Wilton, Ridgefield, Darien (twice), Berlin (twice), and Farmington have qualified for moratoria. A few others are close, while 31 exceed the 10 percent threshold.

And in the tiny handful of cases where developers have tried to crowbar a few units where they shouldn’t go, or tried to build more units than would be safe, the courts or local zoning boards have protected towns, their residents, and

their neighborhoods.

Better still, while the Malloy administration has invested more toward ending homelessness and expanding affordable housing in the last five years than in the last 30, the General Assembly has worked across party lines to defend and preserve 8-30g as the envy of other states. The affordable units have generally needed no state subsidy. Developers can build enough market-rate units to provide sufficient profit to cover their costs in making at least 30 percent of the units affordable.

Yet many of us have only read the negative reporting: a supposedly predatory developer uses 8-30g to override local planning and zoning Con’t on page 23

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

100 Medical, Public Health Students Rally For Obamacare

by LUCY GELLMAN NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

The next generation of doctors, nurses and public health experts took a break from clinical rounds and classes at noon Monday in the hope that their patients, many of whom rely on the Affordable Care Act, will be able to afford reliable healthcare going forward.

Sporting homemade signs that read “Universal Health Care is a Universal Right,” “I stand with the 30,000,000,” and “Protect our patients,” around 100 students congregated on Cedar Street, joining a nationwide effort led by Protect Our Patients, a national coalition of present and future health care professionals fighting efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”).

Congress plans to begin holding committee hearings on repeal on Tuesday. President Donald Trump has called for repeal, as has the Republican leadership of the House adn Senate. They argue that premiums have risen too high under Obamacare and that the prgram has failed to live up to its promises.

In advance of the repeal deliberations, Protect Our Patients organized a national day“Do No Harm Action” to take place between noon and 1 p.m. across the country. As of Monday at noon, the Yale School of Medicine was one of 46 institutions participating.

Starting in a crowd outside the 333 Cedar St. medical school building, students — joined by a few of their professors and practicing Yale-New Haven Hospital (Y-NHH) physicians — gathered to listen to representatives of the Yale Healthcare Coalition (YHC), a student group that was formed in late November last year after the election of President Donald Trump. Squeezing together by the buildings’s entrance and stone steps, students cheered as fourthyear medical student Priscilla Wang took the megaphone, and gave an impassioned appeal for keeping the ACA. “We want to send Congress a clear message—do not repeal!” yelled Wang, a founding member of YHC

LUCY GELLMAN PHOTO

Bhattacharya links hands with colleagues.

Andi Shahu and others.

who is applying to residencies in internal medicine, and watched her own grandparents move back to Taiwan when the cost of healthcare in the U.S. became

untenable. “It would mean an attack on our patients. We are standing here to say: Do no harm.

And [that] all of us are watching.”

“All of us are here as individuals,

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but it is equally important, now more than ever, that our institutions speak out,” added MD-MBA student Eamon Duffy, referencing a hope that the Medical School will issue an institutional statement in favor of the Affordable Care Act this week.

Students then stretched out on both sides of Cedar Street, linking hands as they shouted “Protect our patients!” and “Do no harm!” in unison. A continuous chain of bodies stretched over the better part of the street.

For students like Dipankan Bhattacharya, a sixth-year MDPhD candidate pursing pediatrics, the rally was as personal as it was professional. He immigrated from India with his parents 16 years ago. He has since watched his mom receive life-saving healthcare through the Affordable Care Act, which made allowances for her preexisting condition.

If the ACA is repealed, along its government guarantees that insurance will cover preexisting conditions he said, he will fear for her life.

“There are so many things I want to be protesting right now,” he said. “As an immigrant, and as a doctor. It’s very scary to think about how things are going to be going forward.”

He added that many of the patients he sees at Yale-New

Haven and the Haven Free Clinic (where he volunteers) are covered by the ACA. “This would be the end for them,” he said.

First-year public-health management student Shermaine Hutchins, a U.S. Army veteran from Daytona Beach, Florida, said he gets health insurance through Yale. But he’s worried about his wife and two young kids, to whom those benefits don’t extend. Right now, they’re covered the ACA. But if that disappears, he said, the family won’t be able to afford another form of insurance, he said.

“Until the ACA, I or my family never had insurance, because it was like, you could have insurance, or you could pay rent,” he said. “Some of the bureaucrats in Washington fail to realize that.”

Responding to those “bureaucrats” and the 51 legislators still in favor of repealing the ACA with no viable replacement in place students said they are hoping that administrators and managers will come forward to make an official statement against the possible repeal, following in the steps of hospitals like Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

In a post-protest debrief in the school’s library, Yale Health Coalition member and medical student Matt Meizlish urged colleagues to get involved. He, Wang, and other YHC leaders laid out a multi-step plan: calling Republican state representatives who may still vote in favor of the ACA (those states include Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Kentucky); sharing personal stories of the ACA’s success with friends, family, colleagues, and legislators; signing a #ProtectOurPatients petition; and trying to push to Medical School to take a public stance on the importance of maintaining and improving the ACA, instead of replacing it.

As of Monday afternoon, the Medical School had not replied to a request for comment.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

John P. Thomas Publisher / CEO

Babz Rawls Ivy

Editor-in-Chief Liaison, Corporate Affairs Babz@penfieldcomm.com

Advertising/Sales Team Trenda Lucky Keith Jackson Delores Alleyne John Thomas, III

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Contributing Writers David Asbery Tanisha Asbery Jerry Craft/Cartoons Barbara Fair

Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur Michelle Turner Smita Shrestha William Spivey Kam Williams Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

_______________________

Contributors At-Large

Christine Stuart www.CTNewsJunkie.com Paul Bass New Haven Independent www.newhavenindependent.org

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February Is Black History Month: Celebrating Everything Black! Art, Health, Protest & Love

Here, at the Inner-City News we celebrate being Black everyday!

Each edition has health, history, local interests, national focus and international news. We are not limited to February for looking back at our accomplishments. For me, February is an opportunity for other folks to take a greater look at our contributions to the world. The film “Hidden Figures” and thousands of other little known Black history

facts are shared for the benefit of other folks conditioned to focus on February as their time to delve into our history and culture.

Cool. I am fine with that. And truth be told, we stock the paper with “extra” Blackness in February. We see an increase in schools and other places of education where folks are picking up the paper. All sorts of folks use it as a teaching tool. We’re cool with that too.

What is always stunning to me is the absence of our love relationships played out on tv, movies, videos and music. Where is the love? Well, right here in the pages of The Inner-City News. February we will showcase Black love in art, health, and protest.

Don’t miss an edition. Each week we are loving strong and we want you to love strong too! So while we are in the midst of some scary and

challenging times across this country and in the world at large, we are no strangers to struggle and uplift. So hold on tight and keep your heads to the sky and let’s win!

Babz Rawls Ivy #BlackLoveMatter Editor-in-Chief The Inner-City News

City Pledges To Cut Greenhouse Emissions By 80%

by LUCY GELLMAN NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

New Haven is taking two new steps in the fight against climate change, one locally and one globally.

Thursday morning at City Hall, climate advocates and activists gathered to watch New Haven Mayor Toni Harp sign a commitment to the Compact of Mayors, a group of 626 international city leaders (and growing) around the globe addressing and attempting to address climate change. The Compact was founded after the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit.

The commitment served as the launch of a New Haven Climate & Sustainability Framework (NHCSF), which will lay out a plan for New Haven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 2001 levels by 2050. Three community meetings are planned for February and March, at which members of the NHCSF and New Haven Climate Movement plan to hear from community members.

“Make no mistake, climate change and sustainability are global issues,” said Mayor Toni Harp. “All our global residents are at risk, and there is no plan B.” She added that she, Moris Cove Alder Sal DeCola, City Engineer Giovanni

LUCY GELLMAN PHOTO

DeCola, Harp, Alder Darryl Brackeen, Schweitzer, Zinn and Alder Adam Marchand.

Zinn and others have been working for 12 months toward a Climate Action Plan that is “visionary, inclusive, and implementable.”

Zinn said that the moment is now: Climate change, and specifically heavier patterns of rainfall, have already been affecting how the city approaches engineering and infrastructure projects.

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To get there, the New Haven Climate & Sustainability Framework aims to target six areas within New Haven: buildings, electric power, food, land and infrastructure, materials management, and transportation.

Steps include improving and incentivizing taking public transportation, bringing more solar and electric power to the city,

committing to “green” or sustainable building, supporting community gardens and land trusts, and reducing non-biodegradable waste.

Environmental activist Chris Schweitzer argued these adjustments will lead to greater pedestrian safety, cleaner air, and job creation in New Haven.

“We all need to recognize there is a massive urgency to act on climate change,” he said. “We can be a leader in Connecticut and move things ahead.”

The announcement and signing came just two days after President Donald J. Trump announced his intention to freeze Environmental Protection Agency funds and jobs, reauthorize the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, and ban federal employees working on the environment from talking to the press.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

1,500 Take Stand Against Trump’s Ban

by LUCY GELLMAN & BRIAN SLATTERY NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Bekka Ross-Russell and Riz Kaiser-Din joined 1,500 people Sunday night to show support for newcomers to this country and to feel that support themselves.

The crowd gathered outside Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library for a candlelight vigil supporting immigrants and refugees held outside Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library.

Organized by Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), the Yale Refugee Project, Yale’s Muslim Student Association, and students at the Yale Law School, the vigil doubled as a show of support and call to action. Afterwards, a crowd filled Battell Chapel for a concert to benefit refugees and IRIS. The vigil, one of hundreds protests across the country this weekend against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants and many foreign visitors, followed an afternoon protest at Bradley International Airport in Hartford organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Ross-Russell attended Sunday night’s New Haven vigil with her husband and their two children. Just three months ago, she would never have imagined needing to come to such an event.

Ross-Russell’s family moved from their temporary home of Tanzania to Ross-Russell’s native U.S. in October 2016. They didn’t expect to encounter problems. KaiserDin is a citizen of the U.K. in good standing. Their two children, Simon and Zawadi Kaiser-Russell, were adopted from Tanzania, where RossRussell runs the NGO The Small Things. The four assumed they would settle comfortably in Branford and watch the first woman ever win the U.S. election.

Then Donald Trump won the presidential election. And just short of three months and one sweeping executive order banning immigrants later, they found themselves questioning their move, and thinking seriously about what it means to live in the U.S. as a family.

“It’s very scary not knowing what’s coming next,” said Ross-Russell.

“We want to be able to take our kids back, to visit, but if we left, would we be able to get back into the country?

We don’t know.”

LUCY GELLMAN PHOTO

Abdi: “This is the America my parents came to escape Somalia?”

Lopez and her sons.

“I’m feeling very scared,” added Kaiser-Din, who said he worries that people will bristle at his dark skin, stubbly beard and accent.

“Anymore, it’s scary to even think about traveling to places I don’t know, where people don’t know me.

Like the supermarket is fine, but what about rural areas? There’s so much fear ... and I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Ross-Russell said she has observed a surge in racist behavior towards her kids, who are black and speak with accents, after the election, including one young boy who told her son Simon that “black people are bad.”

Others in the crowd expressed similar sentiments. Leaning forward as Yale Chaplain Omer Bajwa spoke atop architect’s Maya Lin’s Women’s Table, Yale freshman Hafsa Abdi held her candle to her chest, the flame illuminating her soft brown eyes and pink headscarf.

“As soon as I read about the ban, I was in disbelief,” said Abdi, whose parents and two older sisters immigrated from Somalia to Fairfax, Virginia, almost 20 years ago. “This is the America my parents came to escape Somalia? This is supposed to be a democracy. Yet watching the news — it’s already like there’s been a wall built since the election.”

“I talk to my parents twice a day,” she continued, “Today, my mom said: All you can do is speak out, stay vigilant, and take care of yourself.

And my dad told me: If anything, this should make you proud to be Muslim.”

“But,” she added, “I just want to say: ‘I’m just a Yale student from Virginia. I’m not a terrorist.”

Muslim Student Association (MSA) President Abrat Omeish, a senior studying political science whose family is Libyan-American and Muslim, echoed Abdi’s sentiment.

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He spoke of a recent visit from her grandfather still a resident of Libya that may have be his last to the United States.

“People needed to wake up for a long time,” he said. “Now they’ve woken up, and we’re going to keep moving. That is the continued call to action.”

Across the narrow, cold stone passageway outside of Sterling, Yale cancer researchers Stellar Levy, “Emily” (who did not wish to be identified by her full name), and Anna Truini were holding their candles high to show support for students like Abdi and Omeish as well as the thousands of immigrant and refugee families now hanging in the balance at refugee camps, detained at airports, and seeking asylum and humanitarian aid. Emily, who immigrated from Botswana six years ago, said she couldn’t help but think of her own family, several members of which are still overseas.

“I want to stand in solidarity tonight, for those people who need help,” she said. “This ban—it’s hurtful, and goes very deep. It’s why we’re here.”

“I think it goes against what makes this country this country,” said Levy.

“It’s all pretty scary.”

That message the fundamental unAmerican-ness of the executive order and ban rang true for Melissa Lopez and her sons Ethan and Brendan, huddling around their candles with State Sen. Ted Kennedy, Jr. and his wife, Kiki.

“I’m here to show my kids that if you believe in something, you must

stand up for it,,” said Lopez, who works in Bridgeport with students from several of the ban’s targeted countries (Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Somalia and Libya).

“We have to show people that we care about them!” added Ethan, a middle schooler in Bethany.

“We’re here!” the crowd cried. “And we’re not going away!”

Lopez and the boys stretched their candle-grasping arms, filling the space around them with light.

Every Voice Lifted Matthew Cramer of the Institute of Sacred Music leaned closer to the microphone in front of the altar of Battell Chapel on the corner of Elm and College. It was not yet 7 p.m., and already the chapel was mostly full.

“Would you mind just squeezing in a little closer?” he said to those already seated. The crowd did, and spaces appeared in the pews. He instructed everyone who had a space next to them to raise their hands, so those still coming in from the rally could find a place to land. They did, and soon almost all the hands were down.

Battell Chapel was packed for a concert by several musical acts held as a fundraiser for IRIS at 7 p.m.

They included the a capella groups The Duke’s Men of Yale, the Yale Glee Club, Redhot & Blue, Yale Schola Cantorum, Saecula Singers, Something Extra, and Living Water.

Interspersed among these groups were a quartet from the Yale School of Music, guitarist Cullen Gray, soprano Ariadne Lih and pianist Jacob Reed, Second Movement, and singer-songwriter Sofia Campoamor.

The concert transformed the defiant mood of the rally into something more varied and complex. Often that meant joy. The Duke’s Men offered pop hits from Michael Jackson, Journey, and Queen. Redhot & Blue performed “Zoot Suit Riot,” “Angel Eyes,” and “Return to Me.” Something Extra gave the audience Taylor Swift. Most playful was the quartet of Sam Bobinski (bass), Matheus Souza (violin), Ben Wallace (piano), and Doug Perry (percussion), all students at the Yale School of Music who discovered a shared love for the music in video games. That drew a chuckle from the audience. But the music they played was serious fun. Befitting the point of the concert, the music got just plain serious, too, as in the Yale Con’t on page 8

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

M A C Y ’ S I S P R O U D T O C E L E B R AT E

JOIN US IN HONORING BLACK ART AND EXPRESSION THROUGH THE W O R K O F E M I N E N T P O E T, A C T O R , AND MUSICIAN, SAUL WILLIAMS M A C Y S . C O M / C E L E B R AT E

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

A Tuneful Tonic For Troubled Times

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

A cold wind was blowing outside, but inside a church in the Hill, ev’ry voice rose to the rafters with hope.

The occasion was a song-filled 50th anniversary worship service and celebration held Sunday for Christian Community Action at Star of Jacob Christian Church on Howard Avenue.

An interfaith, interracial, interurban-suburban crowd reflective of the history and mission of CCA began the event joining together in singing the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice.” They exited the church an hour and a half later singing a reprise, propelled by the insistent rhythms of the Afro-Semitic Experience.

In between, the crowd listened to five-minute personal reflections about the agency’s work sheltering and feeding homeless families and helping families on welfare transition to self-sufficient lives and organize for system change. Volunteers from regional churches founded CCA in the 1960s to respond to families in the Hill neighborhood who needed emergency help. The agency remains based in the Hill today, where it has blossomed into a powerhouse of service and empowerment under the direction of Rev. Bonita Grubbs.

Each reflection at Sunday’s

PAUL BASS PHOTO

Rev. Grubbs.

Inside Star of Jacob Sunday.

service was interspersed with musical selections by community-based spiritual

ensembles. Performers included the Trinity Girls Choir, the Unity Boys Choir, the Heritage Chorale

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... and Salt and Pepper Gospel Singers, a racially integrated urban-suburban team led Sunday

by Mae Gibson Brown, who cofounded it 30 years ago and, as you can hear in the above video, is still going strong.

“However hard the times are, if there’s a saving remnant, the community can be rebuilt,” remarked Michael Morand, who along with co-chair Diane Young Turner urged people to contribute money to keep CCA going strong. “We must be that saving remnant.”

Rabbi Herbert Brockman noted the storm clouds outside originating from the Trump administration in Washington. “Every day we are exposed to such fear and hate — Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism,” Brockman said. At the same time, CCA’s perseverance “reminds us of the better angels that are in human beings.”

Those better angels soared at the service’s climax, when Warren Byrd, co-founder of the AfroSemitic Experience, a jazz-rooted ensemble that reinterprets Negro spirituals and traditional Jewish liturgical tunes, led a rousing rendition of Mahalia Jackson’s “I’m Going To Live The Life I Sing About In My Song.” He did what the song advised. The band did, too. Rising to their feet, a sanctuary full of Americans regirded themselves to return to the world outside and do the same in challenging times.

Ackee, No Saltfish

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Inside New Haven’s newest Caribbean restaurant, Qulen Wright sautéd the brightly red and yellow peppers, onions and garlic to create the base for Jamaica’s national dish, ackee and saltfish except there would be no saltfish.

“I’m the vegan cook,” Wright said.

“So I can make it without the fish.”

Wright is just one of the cooks at the Ninth Square Market II Caribbean Style restaurant. It opened three weeks ago at 89 George St., catering to the appetites of meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike.

He co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Elisha Hazel, who handles the customers out front and the business side. His brother, Mark Sinclair, handles cooking meat. That means you can get tofu and vegan mac and cheese, as easily as you can beef, chicken and fish at the restaurant.

And Wright, a vegan since the late 1990s, got the bug to cook in his early teens. He said when it comes to ackee, a fruit that came to Jamaica from West Africa in the 1770s, a light hand is all it takes to make a delicious dish.

“It doesn’t take much,” he said while the peppers, onions and garlic sautéed. “It has such a distinctive taste that you don’t need a whole lot of seasoning.”

He doesn’t add much seasoning.

Just Braggs Liquid Aminos, some oregano and a few pinches of salt at the end of the dish to finish it off.

But he doesn’t add the ackee, which has the delicate appearance and texture of soft scrambled eggs, until the onions, peppers and garlic are done.

“So this is like so delicate, that I do most of the cooking before I even add it,” he said. “If you do a lot of mixing and cooking it will actually break it all up.”

Wright, who is making music when he’s not cooking, said the dish is often served at breakfast time, with golden fried dumplings and sweet plantains on the side.

“People eat it for dinner too, served with a little rice,” he said.

Hazel, a certified nutrition specialist who ensures that all the food at the restaurant is organic and nonGMO and pesticide free whenever possible, said that soon you will be able to get ackee as part of a full,

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

Chef Wright. His brother handles the meat.

Elisha Hazel handles things in front of the shop.

traditional Caribbean breakfast menu that the restaurant plans to add.

The offerings will include Jamaicanstyle porridge, fried dumplings, and plantains.

It will also include tofu scramble, tempeh bacon and fresh salads and soups. There are additional plans to add a Caribbean-influenced juice bar with juices made from fruits and vegetables like lime-aid, watermelon and ginger, and carrot.

More traditional drinks like homemade ginger beer and sorrel made from family recipes also will be on the menu. Hazel’s family hails from Saint James Parish Jamaica, though she was born in New Haven; Wright was born in Trelawny Parrish.

And if that weren’t enough, Hazel, a graduate of Career High and the city’s first Small Business Academy class, said she has hopes that she will be able to add nutritional services to help people with their health and weight loss goals including consulting, meal planning and food preparation. She currently splits her time at the restaurant with being a nutritionist at a weight loss center.

She said the idea to start a restaurant came from her and Wright’s love of food. She wanted to be able to provide a healthful option influenced by the Caribbean diaspora. The couple lucked out on the space. The previous tenant was looking to move on, so they moved in.

“It’s not only for Jamaicans,” she said of the restaurant’s food. “But for people from Puerto Rico, Cuba—the whole Caribbean diaspora.” It also is for people who love food from that region, and for “mixed” families like hers—families that have meat eaters and non-meat eaters.

“I know a lot of people who come from mixed families like our family,” Hazel said. “My husband and I, and our children are vegan.

But our parents still consume meat. So when we get together for holidays our table has a wide spread of everything. Many families have the same thing going on, and we want people to be able to come into the restaurant and have meat options and options for those who don’t eat meat.

“It’s food for all,” she said.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

“We Will Not Cower In Fear”

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

A boisterous rally sent President Donald Trump a message Thursday night: New Haven’s not only a “sanctuary city.” It’s a fighting city, too.

As twilight turned to darkness, New Haven’s mayor and U.S. congresswoman and its assistant police chief, clergy and grassroots civil-rights activists took turns on the City Hall steps declaring their determination to fight an executive order Trump issued Wednesday to remove federal money from “sanctuary cities” that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities in deporting undocumented immigrants.

Hundreds cheered as officials vowed to continue refusing to share information about immigrants with the feds and to keep in place a police general order banning officers from asking people about their immigration status.

The common theme of the evening: New Haven won’t succumb to fear.

“We’re not afraid,” declared New Haven Legal Assistance Association attorney James Bandhary-Alexander, who represents immigrants in wage-theft and workplace harassment cases. “We’re going to fight every step of the way.”

“Are we afraid of Donald Trump?” he asked the crowd, which filled the sidewalk and spilled out into the rush-hour Church Street traffic.

“No!” came the return roar.

Like her counterparts in other sanctuary cities, Mayor Toni Harp has promised to fight Trump’s executive order in court if he tries to enforce it against New Haven. She estimates that the city has up to $56 million in currently approved and undrawn federal money at stake. In interviews since Trump announced his order, Harp has grown increasingly passionate about fighting it, about the threat it poses to New Haven’s public safety and to constitutional protections for local governments and the Congress.

Harp’s passion was on full display as she addressed Thursday night’s rally.

“New Haven gets to decide how New Haven will behave.

This new group in Washington does not!” she declared.

“I cannot overemphasize this: New Haven police officers, school district employees, and other city workers do not and will not — act to enforce federal immigration law. Those who represent this city act in support of all residents regardless of documentation and immigration status,” she declared.

“One of the worst things to come out of Washington in recent days is the chilling effect this new administration has had on a growing segment of this community, where families are fearful

10

PAUL BASS PHOTOS

Harp (center) and rally organizer Matos (at left): No turning back.

about sending children to school and where hard-working, law-abiding, taxpaying New Haven residents are fearful going about their everyday routine,” she continued. “It’s my opinion that increasing fear among a wider swath of New Haven residents does more harm in this community than violations of immigration law.

“We are a community in which police officers and school officials are the good guys and the helpful ones to be trusted and counted upon to protect residents and serve their needs.

“I stand before you tonight urging families to continue sending children to school, urging residents to continue going about their daily routine, and offering reassurance that New Haven remains a safe haven for all who choose to live here.

“And I stand among you this evening to reinforce for you my commitment, that of all city departments, and that of my staff, to do everything within our power to safeguard New Haven’s cherished reputation as a sanctuary for all who want to live here.”

Harp ended by hugging rally organizer Kica Matos who as a former city official created some of New Haven’s immigrant-friendly policies and thanking her for her “extraordinary leadership” on the issue.

Assistant Police Chief Luiz Casanova spoke of his days serving as the top cop in Fair Haven, where many Latino immigrants live. After the police general order took effect in 2006, he recalled, immigrants started trusting officers and helping to solve crimes. “Because of the trust, we went from the murder capital of New Haven to zero murders,” Casanova said. “We won’t abandon you. We worked too hard to build this trust.”

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro spoke as a proud daughter of a man who immigrated to New Haven a century ago. She characterized as “un-American” Trump’s vows to deport more immigrants and punish cities that welcome them.

“We are not going to cower in fear from anyone,” DeLauro declared.

“Trump said he’s coming after us. We’re coming after him!” Vanesa Saurez of the immigrant-rights group Unidad Latina en Acción told the crowd.

After chants of “love trumps hate,” the hour-long rally ended with a march through downtown blocks. Rev. Ron Hurt of Deliverance Temple offered a send-off with these words for the president: “You mess with my brothers and sisters, you mess with me.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

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MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Bevilacqua shows the phase 2 plans Wednesday evening at City Hall.

by MARKESHIA RICKS The City Plan Commission gave the go-ahead for the city’s housing authority to get moving on the second phase of the redevelopment of a West Rock public-housing community.

Commissioners unanimously signed off on site plans and inland wetland review for the second phase of the Rockview development during their monthly meeting Wednesday at City Hall.

Rockview was razed in 2003. The first phase of its reconstruction, which includes 37 two-bedroom, 36 three-bedroom and four fourbedroom homes, was reopened in 2013.

Now the Housing Authority of New Haven plans soon to put shovels in the ground for the second phase.

The phase includes 78 new rental units— a mix of 25 duplexes, one three-unit building, five four-unit buildings and one five-unit building.

Shanae Draughn, HANH’s special projects director, told commissioners that the housing authority has submitted a 9 percent tax credit application to the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority and expect to hear back by this spring.

“If we are [successful], we would look to have a financial closing and construction to being in September or October of this year,” she said.

Andy Bevilacqua of Diversified Technology Consultants said the design of Rockview II isn’t substantially different from

Rockview I, though tenants of rental units in the duplexes will get to enjoy their own personal driveways.

Draughn also told commissioners that 20 percent of the 78 apartments in phase II will be rented at market rate.

If you think that people won’t pay market rate in the remote corner of the city, you’re wrong, she said.

She pointed to the completion of the next-door Abraham Ribicoff Cottages, which have 11 market rate units alongside their affordable units. The apartments, which are one- and two-bedrooms, rent for the market rate of $1,300 and $1,500, respectively.

“They’re all rented,” Draughn noted.

“Collectively, through the redevelopment of Brookside and Rockview, to date we’ve constructed over 400 apartments, 12 homeownership spaces, commercial space. We’ve probably successfully leveraged 2-to-1 over $100 million for the redevelopment of Brookside and Rockview.”

She said still to be redeveloped as part of the overall $200 million West Rock redevelopment is Westville Manor, with additional houses for people to purchase and a bigger community center. The community center will likely come quickest; the plan is to expand it during the build out of Rockview II. City Plan Commission Chairman Ed Mattison commended the housing authority for its success in remaking the West Rock neighborhood.

“It’s really amazing what you’ve been able to accomplish,” he said.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017 Con’t from page 06

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Glee Club’s rendition of “The Road Home.”Living Water’s performance of “Blessings” touched on the need to find faith in trying times.

And Yale Schola Cantorum’s devastating performance of Ted Hearne’s “Privilege: 5. we cannot leave,” based on a South African text about an abandoned refugee, cast a pall of silence over the chapel and brought a few people to their feet at the end.

But the true star of the night was IRIS itself, which by the end of the concert estimated that it had raised $12,000 from an audience eager to help. Executive Director Chris George spoke at the beginning of the evening to thank everyone for coming.

“I was about to say these are dark days for refugee resettlement, but boy, you have raised my spirits,” he said. He spoke briefly of the U.S. tradition of welcoming immigrants from all over the world to make new lives within its borders.

“We have to protect this tradition,” George said. “Prepare for the battle ahead ... keep your spirits high ... we need all of your energy, activism, and strength.”

When he finished, the audience rose as one and applauded, with a sound that filled the chapel from front to back, roof to ceiling.

Salovey Weighs In Meanwhile, Yale University President Peter Salovey sent the following message to students, faculty, and staff about the Trump order: To the Yale Community, In the hours since Provost Polak, Vice President Goff-Crews, and I wrote to you yesterday evening, we

have continued to work closely here on campus, and with colleagues at other U.S. universities, in response to the executive order signed by President Trump on Friday. As you are no doubt aware, the order provides the following: For the next ninety days it blocks entry into the United States by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen; For the next ninety days it appears to bar individuals with valid visas and even green card holders from those countries from re-entering the United States unless exemptions are granted; For the next 120 days it suspends entry of all refugees to the United States; and It bars Syrian refugees indefinitely.

We are alarmed by this executive order. Together with many others in and beyond the Yale community, we question the motivation underlying it and recognize that it departs from long-standing policies and practices in our country. All of us are worried for colleagues, friends, and family members who may be affected by these and other changes in immigration laws.

American institutions of higher learning are united in their distress on behalf of our international students and faculty, and in their reliance on our communities’ most fundamental values of accessibility and open dialogue. Our educational mission and the welfare of our community members are directly at stake. National security is of the utmost importance, but we are steadfast in asserting that this goal can be achieved while maintaining

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respect for core academic—and American—values. This is why Yale joins with the Association of American Universities (AAU) in urging that “the administration’s new order barring the entry or return of individuals from certain countries…should end as quickly as possible.” We support the AAU’s call for the United States to continue “to welcome the most talented individuals from all countries to study, teach, and carry out research and scholarship at our universities.”

Our Office of International Students & Scholars (OISS), in consultation with legal counsel, has recommended that Yale students and scholars from the designated countries (including dual nationals and U.S. permanent residents) suspend plans for international travel without first consulting OISS or an immigration attorney. Staff in OISS have reached out to Yale students and scholars from the seven countries affected. The office will also be hosting open meetings for the Yale community on Wednesday, February 1, and Thursday, February 2, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. More information is on the OISS website and will continue to be updated regularly. I know that a number of the deans also have reached out to their students and faculty, and that several gatherings of support are planned for this evening. I am grateful to see the many ways that our university community is coming together in response to this assault on our values.

Our campus includes more than 5,000 international students and scholars from 118 countries; they are part of the very lifeblood of this university. I reiterate here our commitment to the safety, wellbeing, and vital place at Yale of these international scholars and students, the members of our Muslim community more generally, and others who may be affected by Friday’s executive order. Not only do immigrant and international students and scholars contribute to our university, they contribute tremendously to our nation. Those who choose to stay bring new ideas, skills, energy, and cultures. Those who choose to return home foster goodwill toward the United States abroad. Today, we at Yale join our voices with all those who are calling for swift reversal of these measures that undermine our university’s— and our nation’s—core values.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

Policing Task Force Tackles Pot, Salary Competition

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

A task force commissioned to help shape New Haven community policing 2.0 still has important work to do in helping the police department shape recruitment and retention and a long-range strategic plan.

At least that’s what the the person who put the task force together, Mayor Toni Harp, told them Thursday evening.

The Community and Police Relations Task Force received a visit from Harp to their meeting at City Hall to hear her thoughts on their latest recommendations on how the police department could better recruit more New Haven residents in particular, and more minorities of all stripes in general.

Harp appointed the task force of cops, community activists, critics and supporters nearly two years ago after the controversial arrest of a teenager outside the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. They delivered their first set of recommendations to Harp last July, which included deescalation training, arrest diversion, and requiring officers to report misconduct by other officers.

The task force has since delivered additional recommendations for recruitment and retention of officers.

Some of those recommendations for recruitment include partnering with a local health center to defray the cost of the physical exam; outsourcing background checks to ensure fairness; updating the drug policy so it doesn’t penalize applicants who haven’t smoked marijuana in the past two years but in previous years exceeded the allotted amount. The task force also recommends that the prohibited drugs list be updated to include ecstasy.

Recommendations for retaining officers include making salaries competitive; addressing racial disparities in discipline; creating more education and mentorship opportunities; providing a “tip line” for officers to suggest improvements but also a “whistleblower” line too; and finding more ways to incentivize officers becoming homeowners in New Haven.

Harp told her task force that their latest recommendations were “really good work.” She said she has been talking with Interim Chief Anthony Campbell on how to start implementing some of them before

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

Task Force chairmen Williams and Greer.

Harp: Take it up a notch.

Police Commissioner Gregory Smith

another recruitment class gets underway, including consulting psychologists about the psychology assessment to ensure that it is culturally competent.

She said there are also plans to draft a new request for proposals for companies to conduct the psychological assessment, which hasn’t been done in years. The city also is looking at how it can make salaries more competitive so New Haven can stop losing cops to the suburbs.

Reefer Madness She said the task force was on the money about the issue of marijuana, especially given that being caught smoking pot is an infraction on par with a speeding ticket.

“If that is the way in which the state sees this substance, we need to rethink whether using it in two years” is a reason to keep someone from joining the police department, Harp said. “I agree with you on that

change and given that there was a move in that direction last year to consider legalizing marijuana, and that [legislators] will probably do it again this year, I think we need to take another look at our policy.”

Harp said it’s not appropriate to use the same metrics that were used 10 or 15 years ago.

“I like your report,” she told the task force. “I think you’re really on to something, and in some areas, I think you can take it up a notch.”

Task Force Co-Chairs Leroy Williams and Eli Greer said that now that the task force has received the endorsement of the mayor to keep working, they and other members want to help the department develop a long-term plan, though the work seems to be a moving target.

“Whatever happens in the world affects us whether it’s a bombing, or a shooting,” Williams said. “It takes us off track for a little while, and

14

that it constantly comes up in the national news, and takes us away from what goes on here. Trying to keep us focused on what’s going fon here, staying focused locally can be tough.”

Sometimes the national becomes local, such as problems around policing and immigration that people were protesting even as the task force was meeting Thursday.

Greer pointed out that the police department, particularly through the work of Lt. Racheal Cain of internal affairs, has finally tackled its general orders to make them more cohesive, less redundant and even indexed. Greer said that with the help of a little pressure from the task force and the backing of the mayor, the police department is getting a full time IT person. Within four to six months, all of the general orders are expected to be available online.

Like the mayor, Interim Chief

Campbell, who attended the meeting, agreed that it’s time to make some changes to the drug policy so that “our policies catch up with what the law really is.”

Salaries He also said that the city has been in negotiations with the police union since July on a new contract.

Part of those discussions include how to make the department more competitive, noting that “people vote with their feet.”

At one point last year, New Haven had lost 18 rookies it had paid to train to suburbs within two years of their leaving the academy. (Read more about that here.) Campbell said that number is now up to 25.

“If you can do the same job, sometimes at a scaled back version of the job for $25,000 to $30,000 more, in another town, where really in many instances you’re facing less risk, why wouldn’t you” leave?

Campbell said. “I don’t blame people for that. Everybody’s got a family, bills and student loans to pay. So we have to be competitive if we want to get the best candidates and expect to hold on to them. We are the lowest paying department in the state, and we do, in my opinion, the most work. And it takes longer to reach top pay, which is not competitive with other cities.”

He said all of those salary concerns are being addressed to the benefit of residents and the department. He said he sees the role of the commission to “sharpen the department.”

“Personally, I think their role is crucial,” he said. “One of the biggest mistakes any police department, any organization can make is thinking you can sit back and come up with all of the answers yourself. You have to have outside, not only input, but also sounding boards.”

He said by letting the task force see the departments policies, vet what the department does, and provide feedback, it makes the department better.

“There’s verse in the Bible that says, ‘As iron sharpen iron, so does one man sharpen another.’ I think that’s what this task force does,” Campbell said. “It sharpens us as a police department and refines and sifts through those things that really shouldn’t be there an it improves is so the quality can rise to the top.”

Monks Launch Hill-History Project THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

by MICHELLE LIU

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Jacqueline Monk Roberts remembered when stores and markets lined Washington Avenue, a vibrant spine of the Hill neighborhood. A new committee she helped form is preserving memories like that one by establishing a Hill Neighborhood Heritage Center.

Spearheaded by siblings of the Hill’s illustrious Monk family, the committee gathered a focus group of about a dozen this past Thursday afternoon at the Hill library branch on Washington Avenue to talk about where the center will be and how to reach out to the community.

The heritage center, members asserted, won’t only preserve history but also serve to invigorate the neighborhood. They hope to draw homeowners and businesses alike back into the Hill. As people settled in for the meeting, strains of jazz piped through the library’s community room, classics performed by the legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk a cousin of the New Haven Monks.

The Monk siblings whose parents moved to the Hill in 1952 and became neighborhood stalwarts cited their own strong ties to the

Some wise members of the Monk Council: Olivia, with siblings Pamela and Garry in back.

MICHELLE LIU PHOTO

neighborhood. They remembered hours spent on their Cedar Street porch watching the world go by along with neighbors who came

to visit. The family helped found Thomas Chapel Church where relatives return from far and wide for reunions that include a

neighborhood parade. Once one of the few African-American families in the area, the Monks participated as the Hill grew more diverse. They produced eight children, ran two small businesses, and took as foster children nearly 100 count ‘em New Haven kids. Monks became New Haven teachers, musicians, athletes and coaches.

“This is like my old stomping grounds,” Olivia Monk Henderson said. “This is where I went to grammar school!”

The Monks have performed acts of goodwill in recent years, sponsoring community events.

The city even christened the intersection of Amistad and Cedar Streets “Monk Crossing.”

Last week’s meeting gave everyone else the chance to get nostalgic, too: Monk Henderson asked those present to put their “thinking caps” on and reflect on their own times in the Hill.

Examining an 1880 census map of the neighborhood, Ellen Bohan and Pat Heslin squinted at the names of households lining each block. The two women, members of the Connecticut Irish American Historical Society whose families had immigrated to the Hill decades ago, had spotted a notice for the focus group in a newspaper.

Bohan sifted through the tiny print to find families she’d known, places she’d visited.

In an effort to institutionalize this kind of remembering, Pamela Monk Kelley called for the group to bring in their own bits of history — about family, about the neighborhood for the heritage center. Both Bohan and Heslin suggested other outside resources and groups that could help gather this information, like the New Haven Museum.

The group concurred that the center should be easily accessible (and should have a parking lot).

More pressing were concerns of what kind of building it should be.

Garry Monk and renowned pencil artist Krikko Obbott (pictured), a Hill resident of nearly three decades, pushed for restoring or maintaining a historic building, as Obbott did with an 1890s brick house that later became the Hill Museum of Arts at 210 West St. Garry Monk called for those present to disseminate news of the plans and to contact their alders.

The group made a note of their next meeting, set for March 30.

“We have a seed that we’re planting and we intend to make it happen,” Garry Monk said.

Church St. South Transfers 82 Section 8 Units

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Eight-two guaranteed apartments for low-income families are staying in New Haven rather than moving out of town, thanks to the latest deal in the ongoing saga of Church Street South.

The deal involves the future of “project-based” federal Section 8 apartments after the upcoming demolition of the 301-unit apartment complex across from Union Station.

Sixty-five families remain at Church Street South as officials continue helping them find new places to live so the complex — which became unlivable because of mold and leaks and structural problems — can come down.

Most of the departing families have “tenant protection vouchers,”

Northland’s Standish with a tenants Tuesday night.

or portable federal Section 8 rent vouchers that they can take anywhere to landlords willing to rent to them. But Church Street South consisted of “project-

based” apartments, where Section 8 rent subsidies were tied to the complex. That means if tenants moved, another low-income family could move in, and New

Haven would keep that amount of affordable housing.

As part of a deal worked out with legal-aid lawyers and the city, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agreed to allow other landlords in town to assume the project-based rental agreements from Northland Investment Corp., Church Street South’s owner. But they didn’t necessarily have to go to apartments in New Haven.

(Northland also has agreed to include the same amount of subsidized rents if they rebuild a bigger mixed-use complex at the Church Street South property.)

At a meeting Tuesday night with about 12 remaining tenants, Northland Vice-President Peter Standish announced that 82 of the 301-unit federally subsidized

complex will be transferred to another federally subsidized complex in the city, Beechwood Gardens on Whalley Avenue. The complex is owned by Weatoguebased VestA Corporation. The meeting took place at 54 Meadow St. “This is for those who wish to stay with the Section 8 contract,” Standish said. “Not those who have selected tenant protection vouchers.” Standish said of those eight families, only one or two might actually need one of the two-bedroom units that will become available at Beechwood.

Standish said that Northland is looking to transfer more of the units covered in its more than $3 million annual contract with HUD Con’t on page 23

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

HANH Spinning Off Management Arm

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

The Housing Authority of New Haven has proven that it can compete with private out-of-town builders to redevelop property and create housing .

Now it aims to prove that it can manage property its own and others—just as well as the big boys.

More than a decade ago, the housing authority established a not-for-profit redevelopment arm called the Glenndower Group, to transform obsolete housing in its portfolio into sought-after affordable housing. Glendower has redeveloped the William T. Rowe apartment building (also known as The New Rowe); Monterey Place; Quinnipiac Terrace; Wilmont Crossing; Brookside; Rockview I and Eastview Terrace. (The housing authority just got a thumbs up from the City Plan Commission on its site plans for Rockview II, and last fall a groundbreaking was held for phase two of the Farnam Courts redevelopment. ) Now, the authority is embarking on a similar not-for-profit venture that will be known as the 360 Management Group.

HANH Executive Director Karen DuBoisWalton said the venture will manage properties completed by the Glendower Group and ultimately compete for contracts to manage properties not affiliated with the housing authority.

“The way I see the work that we’re doing in the public sector is that we have to be as nimble, as flexible, as creative as we can be to continue to do this work and meet the ever growing need for affordable housing which is far outpacing the supply of existing units and units in the pipeline,” DuBois-Walton said.

That has meant thinking beyond being a public housing authority strictly in the business of managing and maintaining housing for low-income people with federal funding. It also has meant creating other organizations specifically under the umbrella of “Elm City Communities” that can take on some of the functions of the authority, or take on functions the authority is prohibited from doing such as seeking private financing, while leveraging public and private

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO DuBois-Walton: New group could compete to manage nonHANH affiliated developments.

MELISSA BAILEY PHOTO

Brookside could be among the properties managed by 360 Group.

funding sources to rehabilitate existing public housing stock and provide supportive services.

“Our very first affiliate was Glendower Group. We formed that because the housing authority had the desire to continue the redevelopment of affordable housing and needed to be able to do some things that we, again, could have hired outsiders to do,” she said. “But most of the big developers that come in and redevelop public housing are not Connecticut-based companies.”

She said that creating the Glendower Group allowed New Haven to ensure that development fees stay in New Haven. The same will be true of the 360 Management Group.

New Haven’s housing authority is allowed to create affiliate organizations such as the Glendower Group, and the future 360 Management Group, because of its Moving to Work status under the federal Department of Housing and

Urban Development (HUD). That status was just extended to 2028 during the last session of Congress.

The designation allows housing authorities more budget and regulatory flexibility in the hopes that they innovate and promote self-sufficiency. HANH is among the original 39 that have been in the program since the aughts; in the most recent extension 100 more authorities were added. There are 3,400 housing authorities in the United States.

The need to create an organization affiliated with HANH that manages properties grows out of plans to convert units in the authority’s portfolio from strictly publicly-owned housing to Section 8 “project-based” units owned by the Glendower Group.

“The Section 8 program in a lot of ways is seen as more stable,” DuBois-Walton said. “Now, all of a sudden we can leverage this building; I can go get a tax credit award and do really major stuff,

16

which is what been doing with redevelopment.”

The HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program, or RAD, created under the Obama administration, allows authorities like HANH to basically find a new way to get reliable money for public housing at a time when Congress has been cutting traditional publichousing subsidies. They can now obtain Section 8 “project-based” subsidies (tied to a housing complex, not a tenant) for facilities owned not just by private for-profit developers but by not-for-profit entities the authorities spin off by themselves, like Glendower.

That also allows HANH to obtain enough money for upkeep and redevelopment.

HANH plans to convert 1,000 units of traditional public housing it manages to Section 8 projectbased subsidies over the next two to three years. That means instead of federal dollars going into the hands of private developers and landowners, it stays in the public sector to be reinvested.

“It’s bringing some of the tried and true private market development models into the world of federally subsidized housing,” she said.

“You can bring those tools and allow housing authorities to use [them] to ensure the long term viability of affordable housing without demanding greater federal resources,” she said. “On some deals, I’m leveraging public dollars four-to-one; some deals I’ve leveraged nine times the investment for every public dollar put into it. That’s the kind of thing that I think that people should celebrate around the city.

“We’re using the public dollar to leverage all this private investment into property to meet a need in our community that is great, and to provide it at level you would put your mom, dad, grandma, and children in,” she said.

But DuBois-Walton said that one potential downside of converting the units is that the jobs associated with maintaining them would disappear because the property would technically no longer belong to the housing authority, but rather to the Glendower Group.

The housing authority could hire private companies as it’s done in

the past to manage those properties, or it could create an entity affiliated with the authority that is positioned to do the work, maintain the jobs and seek ways of generating a profit that ultimately is reinvested back into the redevelopment of public housing. With the unanimous support of the HANH Board of Commissioners, it recently got the go ahead to do the latter, and now awaits IRS approval on 360 Management Group’s application for not-for-profit status.

The Future The new management group might not be the last not-for-profit that the housing authority creates, DuBois-Walton said. She said HANH has taken the fundamental position that low-income people should have not only adequate, safe and affordable housing, but also access to supportive services that help move them out of poverty.

The housing authority has to find other means to fund that.

“The money that comes to us is really just housing money,” she said. “You can’t house 6,000 very low-income families and not think you’re going to need to do something more.”

Of those families, DuBoisWalton pointed out that the housing authority has a diverse clientele that includes elderly residents who need help to age in place and stay healthy; families who have children or adults with disabilities, while other families have people who are dealing with behavioral problems and need support services so they can keep working.

“The vast majority of our families are ‘work-able’ families and are usually working two jobs— two jobs that still keep them in poverty,” she said. “We could just say, ‘That’s fine,’ but that doesn’t help that family move forward.

If I don’t create any flow, I’m never moving any families out of poverty; I’m never touching this wait list of families that need to be housed.”

She said the reality is most philanthropic organizations don’t want to give money to government agencies—some do, but most don’t.

A social service organization, under the umbrella of the housing

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

In 1895, Ida B. Wells's Wedding Announcement Was on the Front Page of the New York Times

by Aimée Lutkin, jezebel.com (first posted 1/24/17) A journalist, activist, and one of the founding members of the NAACP, Ida B. Wells was born to slaves in 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi. She prioritized her work over romantic relationships, but eventually, she did get married, and in a rare turn of events given her background, her wedding was noted in the paper of record.

The New York Times is unearthing and contextualizing notable announcements from their archives in a new recurring series called “Committed”; in this one, reporter Nikole HannahJones (who herself was one of the founders of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting) opens with some background on Wells’ relationship to Ferdinand L. Barnett, a lawyer and owner of the Chicago Conservator, whom Hannah-Jones characterizes as “‘a race man’ and a fellow feminist.”

Though the announcement was just a small blurb on the front page, Hannah-Jones writes that “the nuptials of a black woman, born into slavery 33 years earlier, could make the front page of The Times, speaks to a woman who was, by definition, remarkable.”

Ida B. Wells had by that time, however, been doing remarkable things her whole life.

According to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, Wells’s parents died when she was a teenager from yellow fever, and she worked to support her brother and sisters as a schoolteacher in Memphis. While traveling to her job, she was approached by a train

Photo credits: Ida B. Wells Image via the National Portrait Gallery. Ferdinand L. Barnett Image via The New York Public Library.Family portrait Image via The University of Chicago Ida B. Wells Papers. Michelle Duster, great grand-daughter, Image via AP.

conductor who insisted she move from a parlor car to a smoking car reserved for black passengers. She refused, and when he grabbed her, she bit him. Wells brought a suit against the railroad and won in

circuit court, though the win was later overturned in the state court.

Her career as a teacher ended when she denounced the educational standards and conditions for black children.

19

She became part owner of the Memphis Star, but was run out of town when she wrote articles about the practice of lynching black men. Hannah-Jones reports that Wells openly said that lynch

mobs formed to kill black men after they would have consensual sex with white women, justifying murder by calling them rapists.

Wells regularly toured to speak about lynching, and was part of a delegation that went to President McKinley in 1898 to demand action in the lynching of a black postmaster in South Carolina.

Her speaking and writing careers kept her so busy she rescheduled her wedding three times. HannahJones writes that on the day of the wedding, interest in the ceremony was high: When the day finally came, the 27th of June, 1895, the event was fitting for an icon. “The interest of the public in the affair seemed to be so great that not only was the church filled to overflowing, but the streets surrounding the church were so packed with humanity that it was almost impossible for the carriage bearing the wedding bridal party to reach the church door,” Ms. Wells wrote in her autobiography.

At the wedding, Wells’s bridesmaids reportedly wore “lemon crepe dresses set off with white ribbons,” while she wore a “a white satin trained gown trimmed with orange blossoms.”

Wells, who kept her last name following her marriage, had four children. At first, she maintained her touring, but took a break after her second child. Her greatgranddaughter, Michelle Duster, has worked to maintain her legacy, according to the AP, and began an effort in 2012 to erect a statue of Wells in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, in honor of the 150th anniversary of her death.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

Black History Matters!

Celebrate Black History With a Reflection on the 100 Years Leading Up to Barack Obama Winning the Presidency Nationwide — At the end of the historic tenure of a black president and the recent resurgence of “white supremacy,” there is no better time to reflect and remember the journey of black people in America over the last century.

It has become evident that a large part of the United States wants to go back to the “good old days” and reverse the progress that has been made in this country. This heightens the importance of knowing the history to combat those who seek to rewrite it. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Dr. Karen Sloan-Brown’s book, A Reflection: What a Difference a Day Makes, What About 100 Years? is a contemporary black history book which presents a decade by decade examination of the course of Black Americans from living with Jim Crow in 1909 to Barack Obama in 2009. Her book is an intelligent but easy read, informative as well as entertaining while covering a broadly based range of subject matter. Every reader will find a decade in which they can identify or relate to.

Her goal was to look back over 100 years and take note of the progress and changes that have taken place in the aspects of black life in the United States: leadership, business and personal finances, thinking and aspirations, culture, values, attitudes, and how they have affected the quality of life and personal growth for African Americans today, as well as the catalysts for change.

Sloan-Brown’s book highlights the trials and the triumphs, along with the

I Am Not Your Negro

Oscar-Nominated Documentary Inspired by James Baldwin’s Unfinished Manuscript

Film Review by Kam Williams

missteps, of how black people have evolved economically, socially, educationally, politically, and artistically?

Who were the leaders, who was a hero, what was the role of the church, how were black people living, where were they living, what books were they reading, and who were the black athletes, artists, and the entertainers. The book focuses on Black life in the United States before and after the Civil Rights Movement sensing the mood of the people in those eras and how they affected the fight for racial equality and overall progress for African Americans today.

Dr. Karen Sloan-Brown, is the author of several books, the non-fiction PSST: Please Somebody Speak the Truth, Educating the Nation on a Shrinking Budget, and six novels, including The Fortunes of Blues and Blessing, Searching for Everland, and A New Season: The Fortunes of Blues and Blessings Book Two. She is currently the Research Lab Coordinator of the Molecular Biology Core Facility at Meharry Medical College.

She lives with her husband and daughters in Nashville, Tennessee. Learn more at www.karensloanbrown.com 21

When novelist/social critic James Baldwin passed away in 1987, he left behind an unfinished opus entitled “Remember This House.”

The 30-page manuscript assessed the plight of African-Americans in the United States while specifically reflecting upon the assassinations of three civil rights icons: Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. With I Am Not Your Negro, director Raoul Peck (Lumumba) fleshes out Baldwin’s musings, cinematically, into a searing indictment of the United States as an unapologetically-racist nation.

Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the movie has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary category.

The focus of the film never strays far from Baldwin, nimbly alternating between archival footage of the fiery figure challenging the status quo and Jackson’s readings from “Remember This House” and his other writings. Again and again, we hear him question the depth of the country’s commitment to reverse the damage inflicted

upon the black community by generations of slavery, lynchings and Jim Crow segregation.

For example, he asserts that most Caucasians are perfectly comfortable relegating AfricanAmericans to a second-class status. He even goes so far as to refer to them as morally-blind monsters for seeing blacks as sub-human. Until that attitude is eradicated, whites will never recognize that “I am flesh of their flesh.”

Baldwin concludes that “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America.” Therefore, with black and white fates inextricably linked, “It’s not a question of what happens to the Negro. The real question is what is going to happen to this country.”

Given the precarious state of race relations, the late visionary’s prescient insights perhaps prove more timely, posthumously, than in their own day.

Excellent (4 stars) Rated PG-13 for profanity, mature themes, violent images and brief nudity` Running time: 95 minutes Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

ya l e i n s t i t u t e o f sa c r e d m u s i c joins the

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E v e n t l i s t i n g s at www.yale.edu/ism

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

Lee Friedlander Captures The Conflict In Civil Rights

by BRIAN SLATTERY

It’s not just that we see what the photographer is seeing; the way the photograph is composed, we’re there, in his shoes. We’re in the midst of a crowd, people seated in rows of chairs. The women are all in dresses. The men are wearing suits. Most are wearing hats.

Most of them seem to be paying attention to whatever’s in front of them.

But then, front and center in the photograph, is a kid in a Scout uniform. His arms are crossed. His brow is furrowed. His eyes pierce the camera’s lens.

What is he thinking?

The context of the photograph — that the boy is one of tens of thousands in the audience for the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, a march on Washington on May 17, 1957, that featured Martin Luther King, Jr., labor activist A. Philip Randolph, and singer Mahalia Jackson as speakers — makes the question that much more urgent and that much harder to answer, leaving us with lingering queries about social activism and our place in it that are very much of the moment.

The image is one of many in “Let Us March On: Lee Friedlander and the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom,” up on the fourth floor of the Yale University Art Gallery until July 9. Organized by curator La Tanya S. Autry, it offers a glimpse into the civil rights movement so candid that it’s almost obtrusive. Which is part of its power.

Friedlander who in the course of his career has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, and the Whitney was a 22-year-old freelance photographer in 1957 when he went to the march in Washington commemorating the third anniversary of the Brown v Board of Education decision requiring schools to be desegregated. His photographs documented the luminaries who attended the march, though his approach to them is so disarming that it takes a moment to recognize them. In one image, the man speaking at the

FRIEDLANDER “Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (at podium); first row: Bishop Sherman Lawrence Greene, Bishop William Jacob Walls, Roy Wilkins, and A. Philip Randolph.” Gelatin silver print.

podium — shoved into the corner in Friedlander’s composition — is Martin Luther King. In another image, the man in glasses seated on the steps, looking pensive, is Sammy Davis, Jr. The woman with downcast eyes seated next to him is Ruby Dee. In another image, the man staring almost straight into the camera is Harry Belafonte.

Friedlander shot them all with a loose style that even now feels very hip, like someone with a high-quality smartphone. It doesn’t mythologize any of them, and at the same time it captures the energy of the event — an energy that, in the end, came not from the public figures who organized and attended the march, but from the massive audience that gathered to hear them speak, and to make a statement about how much farther

civil rights work needed to go.

Even at 22, Friedlander had the ability of every great photographer to seem invisible. As he moved through the assembled crowd, he caught the faces of people listening. He captured someone in the crowd reclining on the gentle slope near a fence, someone who maybe was tired of standing. He put us right in the audience as hands rose, waving papers in the air. Maybe it was a cheer? It’s hard to say, though the motion captured in the photograph can’t be denied.

But just as often, it seemed, Friedlander chose not to be invisible, and his most arresting images are those in which his subjects notice him. In the exhibit, there are a lot of these, and for a minute or two, it can be fun to play a game of highbrow Where’s Waldo? with the images can you

22

find the people who are looking back at you? But there is real depth in Friedlander’s choice to keep these images, because the people looking straight into his camera’s lens display a startling range of expressions that open up a lot of uncomfortable questions.

No one poses. Almost no one smiles. Some seem maybe a little amused. But more often, their expressions are too unreadable, too complex, to be summarized easily.

They’re conveying something. It’s unclear what. But you want to know.

There’s room in those faces for pride and purpose, but also anger, suspicion, even hostility.

Maybe there’s resentment at the photographer’s invasion of privacy, even in a public place.

Maybe they’re worried: Who is this young white man, and what

is he doing, taking pictures of the crowd at a civil rights march? And the immediacy of the photograph reminds you that, for all we know, their expressions changed a splitsecond later. Maybe they said something to Friedlander just after he took the picture. Maybe they’d said something before.

There is something deep and complicated and unknowable going on, even in something as clear in purpose as the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom was in 1957. Even if everyone knew why they were there, they didn’t know what the ultimate outcome would be. In a greater sense, we still don’t know, even now. And we don’t know what exactly our place is in it, or what we can do about it.

Sound familiar?

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017 Con’t on page 15

82 Section 8 Units

to other interested developers.

The announcement won’t affect many Church Street South tenants.

But it will keep needed affordable housing in town, said New Haven Legal Assistance Attorney Amy Marx.

And while Beechwood Gardens already has subsidized tenants, this will increase the subsidy, making the homes more affordable, and help VestA make needed repairs.

Vice-President Margo Kelleher was on hand Tuesday to tell tenants about the types of twobedroom units that exist at the complex—18 flats (half of which are handicapped accessible), the rest townhouses—and about a renovation of the property that she said is expected to have financing possibly by this spring, and be complete in a year’s time.

“We’re planning a substantial rehabilitation of the property,” Kelleher said. “We cannot accept the Section 8 contract until the rehabilitation is complete.” She said that the Beechwood currently has about 10 vacancies.

“It is bittersweet that the transfer is to an already partially subsidized unit rather than to a full market rate unit subsidized to 30 percent of income,” Marx said. But she added that it’s a first step, not the last. Decisions still have to be made for the remaining families who must wait on replacement housing and those who find that they can’t meet their needs with a portable voucher, but also whether Northland is going to find more local housing entities that can take over the remainder of Northland’s contract.

“The third thing that is the elephant in the room is, what’s going to happen on site” at Church Street South, she said.

Con’t from page 16

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

Resisting Trump is Patriotic Race and Politics Apparently, Donald John Trump is still obsessed with size.

by Sean Yoes Senior AFRO Contributor In 1988, Graydon Carter, then the editor of Spy magazine and currently Vanity Fair’s editor, anointed Trump a, “short-fingered vulgarian.” Trump has been tripping over size ever since (Remember his pathetic exchange with “little” Marco Rubio during the Republican primaries?).

In the days leading up to his inauguration, Trump allegedly boasted about his belief his inauguration crowd would be the biggest in history, surpassing the 2 million people who came out to witness the first inauguration of Barack Obama. To the contrary, side by side photographs comparing Obama’s 2009 inauguration to Trump’s, empirically demonstrate the 45th president’s inauguration crowd wasn’t even half of Obama’s.

I suspect this real fact, versus the “alternative facts,” being promulgated rather hysterically by Sean Spicer, Trump’s spokesperson, is driving the 45th president even further off the deep end into a delusional abyss.

So, can you imagine the impact on Trump’s infamously frail ego and gossamer skin, the sight of millions of people across the nation and around the globe marching in protest against the Trump presidency one day after his inauguration?

While Trump ruminates over size, scores of people, many of them Black women and women of color, continue to organize and implement massive resist to his agenda. “We need to fight for real. It can’t be like the fights in the past where we allow ourselves to be nickeled and dimed and coerced and cudgeled,” said former Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards, during a conversation on, “First Edition,” January 23.

Edwards, interrupted an RV trip across the country to fly back to D.C. to participate in the Women’s March on Washington and help organize locally. “I think that it is important for us to draw a very stark line, because the lines are stark for millions of people’s lives, for the rollback of healthcare, which is going to affect millions of people in this country…at the end of the

24

day people want to know that we are prepared to fight for them,” Edwards continued. “As we saw on Saturday with the millions of people gathered in this country and around the world, when they know we are prepared to fight for them, they’ll be prepared to fight right alongside of us,” she added.

Former Prince George’s County Delegate Aisha Braveboy was also a part of the March and the “First Edition” conversation on Jan. 23 (adding urgency to the purpose of the Women’s March, on Jan. 23, Trump signed an antiabortion executive order, that may have far reaching consequences for women’s reproductive health access worldwide, and he signed it surrounded by five White men).

“This administration, so far has done exactly what it said it was going to do and for the most part that is not good for people of color, it’s not good for poor people, it’s not good for women,” Braveboy said. Braveboy also announced she intends to run for Attorney General of Prince George’s County.

Valerie Ervin, senior adviser for the Working Families Party, a group that organizes politically with a focus on issues specifically impacting women and families, echoed Braveboy’s observations.

“I think it’s really important for us not to get the message twisted about what happened over the weekend, and that is when people try to marginalize women’s issues I think that is a mistake,” Ervin said.

“The march was essentially, in my opinion, about women’s issues as they relate to human rights issues and what this president is already proposing to do in this first 100 days is not just going to impact women and families, it’s going to impact the entire country and maybe even the world,” she added.

So, how do you harness the energy of millions marching in opposition to Trump worldwide and channel that energy into a movement for substantive change?

“What we are saying to this country is…resistance is patriotic. And as patriots of this country we are going to do all that we can to fight against…this show of ignorance (Trump),” Braveboy said. “It is unbelievable… that at this point in our history we have to re-litigate all of these issues that we thought our foremothers had fought for,” she added.

“But… it just reminds us that we have to be forever vigilant and that our gains are very fragile and at any time someone can try to take them away from us. But, we will not be moved, we are going to continue this fight.”

Sean Yoes is a senior contributor for the AFRO, and host and executive producer of AFRO First Edition, which airs Monday through Friday, 5 p.m.-7 p.m. on WEAA, 88.9.

Con’t from page 16

It’s Not Perfect, efforts and threaten a community’s character. What haven’t we heard?

That: • 8-30g has mobilized such towns as Simsbury, Newtown, New Canaan, and Brookfield to proactively zone for affordable housing, attracting private, for-profit development that needs no state subsidy.

• 8-30g was used in Essex to expand a senior housing development on a currently vacant and blighted parcel in the commercial center.

• 8-30g was used by a non-profit developer to bring online units for working families in Stonington.

“We have recognized that we need a diverse housing stock to keep and attract the people we need for a healthy town,” the South Windsor town manager told one of our state’s housing organizations.

“Not everyone’s going to college, not everyone’s going to afford that large 4-bedroom home. So we have worked with developers and planned our zoning to create a wider range of homes at different affordability levels. The spirit, not just the letter, of the 8-30g statute has motivated us to be proactive, and I think our town, and our housing stock, is better for it.”

Perfection cannot be allowed to be the enemy of the good. Calls to rescind 8-30g or render it ineffective would be an injustice to a program that’s worked for over a quarter century.

8-30g has created thousands of housing choices for today’s working families, downsizing seniors, and rising Millennials. It’s done that at virtually no cost to the state. And it’s fostered economic growth in the process. That’s what I call a bargain.

Gary Winfield is a state Senator from New Haven and West Haven.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

Dr. King held a mirror up to a nation's values

How should Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday be celebrated?

It should be celebrated in many different ways.

Dr. King was an intellectual who reflected seriously and critically on the dilemma facing African-Americans, people of color generally and poor people specifically — of all races.

He was also an activist. He didn’t get bogged down in the paralysis of analysis. The choices he saw available to the oppressed were threefold: The first option was to respond to institutional violence with violence. But he didn’t see that as moral, practical or able to really address and solve their problems. In fact, he saw it as counterproductive.

Secondly, the poor and people of color could just endure injustice and essentially do nothing. Again, he didn’t see that as moral or practical, and he thought that such repression would eventually explode into violence. The final choice, the one he recommended, was nonviolent active resistance. He brought thought and action together morally and practically as the best way to bring about structural change.

Dr. King’s birthday also allows us to hold up a mirror and reflect on the nation’s commitment to human rights, democracy and justice.

Dr. King believed in human rights for all human beings, and he believed that it should be measured by one yardstick. He believed people should and could learn to live together and find the joy and benefit of such diversity. These benefits are all around us in sports, entertainment, the press, business, our work places and the professions.

This mixture of ideas, experiences and perspectives helps all of us to grow, see and feel things we never have thought, saw or felt before.

When Clemson and Alabama played for the national college football championship, whites and blacks played harmoniously together and fans cheered sideby-side. Both Southern teams had black quarterbacks. In many ways it was the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bowl.

He knew that we had learned to

XL CENTER

FEB 11 & 12 Competitors shown are subject to change. © 2016 Feld Motor Sports, Inc. 371985

By Jesse Jackson

survive apart, but he challenged us to do a much harder and more gratifying thing: to learn to live together.

I shall never forget our SCLC staff meeting and being with Dr. King on his last birthday. He had convened Native Americans, Appalachian whites, blacks from the Deep South, Latinos from Texas and California, Jewish allies from New York and others to work on the Poor People’s Campaign.

Why poverty? He certainly struggled and suffered to advance a racial agenda — the 1964 Civil Rights Act to bring down the cotton curtain of legal apartheid in the South and the 1965 Voting Rights Act to allow African-Americans to vote without discrimination. But he saw the crisis as deeper than merely race. He also saw caste, which was the moral and economic common ground where black, brown, yellow, red and white, male and female, could fight together for the common good. He believed poverty was a weapon of human destruction.

He saw the War in Vietnam stealing resources from the War on Poverty at home.

He was planning a Poor Peoples’ Campaign to challenge the nation to choose bread over bombs. He argued that a bomb dropped in Vietnam was exploding in urban America because of neglect of the poor.

Dr. King wanted a floor beneath the poor that no American would fall below. He saw that the keys to peace and tranquility were economic security, jobs, education, health care, housing, justice and mercy.

Beyond analyzing the problem, Dr. King was acting. He and we were putting our bodies on the line — that is, we were willing to be beaten, die and go to jail, and we went many times.

We were demanding that Congress choose healing at home over killing abroad.

Dr. King would be heartbroken to see the top priority of the new administration is making affordable health care harder to get, focusing on “law and order” over justice, advocating a nuclear build-up rather than continuing the reduction of nuclear weapons, and promoting incivility in our politics over civility and civil and human rights.

Our challenge today is to not let Dr. King’s rationality and action die.

25

MonsterJam.com

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

Town of Bloomfield Assistant Assessor $37.01 hourly

For details and how to apply, go to www.bloomfieldct.org.

Pre-employment drug testing.

AA/EOE

New Haven Section 3, DAS certified MBE & WBE subcontractors wanted Encore Fire Protection is looking for Section 3, DAS certified MBE & WBE subcontractors to install a fire sprinkler/suppression system. All interested bidders, companies and employees are to be licensed in the State of Connecticut, Bonded and Insured. Work duties will include all tasks required for proper fire sprinkler system installation per approved plans. Construction experience is a must. All F2 licensed mechanics are responsible to arrive to the job site on time, have a minimum of OSHA 10 training and possess approved personal protection equipment. You will also participate in daily, weekly and monthly progress reports. If interested, please contact encorefire110@gmail.com.

Construction oriented company seeking full-time Accounting/Administrative Assistant to answer phones, schedule sales appts, filing, typing & other general office duties. Will also have accounting responsibilities-data entry, sales order billing, and processing A/P transactions, supporting our over-the-counter sales person, the controller & CFO. Min 5 yrs. Related experience, excellent written & verbal skills, ability to multitask, knowledge of basic accounting principles, excellent computer skills (5+ yrs. Experience) with Excel & Word, accounting software knowledge a plus. $31,200 annual salary-negotiable based on experience & qualifications. AA/EOE Email resume to mmunzner@atlasoutdoor.com

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES Invitation for Bids

West Rock Community Center Underground Storage Tank Removal and Soil Excavation The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for West Rock Community Center Underground Storage Tank Removal and Soil Excavation. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Monday, January 30, 2017 at 3:00PM.

KMK Insulation Inc. 1907 Hartford Turnpike North Haven, CT 06473

Mechanical Insulator

Insulation Company offering good pay and benefits.

Please forward resume via REGULAR MAIL only.

This company is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer Bridge Repair Crew – must have reliable transportation and be willing to travel statewide, Operator, Driver, Laborer, M/F, 5-15 years Heavy Highway Exp, OSHA 10, Immediate Opening 860-664-8042, Fax 860-664-9175michelle@occllc.com EOE, AA, Females and Minorities encouraged to apply

Special Projects Manager Immediate opening in a fast-paced petroleum environment For a degreed manager with a BA Degree required, MBA Preferred with 5+ years of oil industry experience.

Proficient in oil, logistics software and solutions, IT Knowledge needed with assistance managing network and System projects. Strong Excel and analytical skills a must. Candidate must possess a high level of accuracy and attention to detail. Petroleum and energy industry knowledge experience a plus. Send resume to: Human Resource Dept., P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437. **An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**

Construction oriented company seeking fulltime Accounting/Administrative Assistant to answer phones, schedule sales appts, filing, typing & other general office duties. Will also have accounting responsibilities-data entry, sales order billing, and processing A/P transactions, supporting our overthe-counter sales person, the controller & CFO. Min 5 yrs. Related experience, excellent written & verbal skills, ability to multitask, knowledge of basic accounting principles, excellent computer skills (5+ yrs.

Experience) with Excel & Word, accounting software knowledge a plus. $31,200 annual salary-negotiable based on experience & qualifications. AA/EOE Email resume to mmunzner@atlasoutdoor.com

ELECTRIC UTILITY ELECTRICIAN Electric utility is seeking a highly skilled maintenance electrician with extensive substation experience to maintain and repair transmission and distribution class switchgear, bus-work, lightning arrestors, protective relays, insulators, switches power transformers, data circuits, controls and other related components. Must be a high school/trade school graduate and have 4 years’ experience in the maintenance and operation of electric utility substations and/or utility grade protection and control systems. Completion of a recognized four (4) year maintenance electrician apprenticeship program may substitute for the experience requirement. Two (2) years of college-level education or advanced training in related field may substitute for two (2) years of the experience requirement. Must possess a valid motor vehicle operator’s license issued by the State of Connecticut and be able to obtain with 6 months of hire a valid Protective Switching and Tagging Procedure certification from CONVEX or other approved agency. Wage rate: $35.43 to $39.08 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Closing date will be February 17, 2017. Apply: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. (203) 294-2080 / Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE

26

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport Request for Proposals (RFP) State Marshal and/or City Sheriff Services Solicitation Number: 074-LD-17-S The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is currently soliciting proposals from State Marshal and/or City Sheriff to provide service of process for the HACB. Solicitation package will be available on January 30, 2017. To obtain a copy of the solicitation you must send your request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please reference solicitation number and title on the subject line. A pre-bid conference will be held at 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604 on February 14, 2017 @ 2:00 p.m. Although attendance is not mandatory, submitting a bid for the project without attending conference is not in the best interest of the Offeror. Additional questions should be emailed only to bids@parkcitycommunities.org no later than February 17, 2017 @ 3:00 p.m. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www. parkcitycommunities.org. Proposals shall be mailed or hand delivered

by February 24, 2017 @ 3:00 PM, to Ms. Caroline Sanchez, Contract Specialist, 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604. Late proposals will not be accepted.

SHOP EQUIPMENT MANAGER HEAVY AND HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY Immediate opening for Highly Organized, Self Motivated, Multitask Shop Manager Skills & Duties required: • Five Years Experience in Overseeing Shop Maintenance • Strong Mechanical Knowledge of Heavy & Highway Equipment • Manage, Plan, Direct & Motivate Mechanics Day to Day Activities • Implement All Aspects of Equipment Repair Including: Managing Vendors, Procurement of Parts & Supplies , • Develop Reports to Forecast, Track & Budget All Equipment Expenses • Ensure Equipment Compliance with All Federal & State Regulations • Assist Field Operators w Trouble Shooting & Emergency Repairs • Competent w Microsoft Word, EXCEL, MANAGER PLUS and Timberline Software Equal Opportunity Employer Minority and female candidates are highly encouraged to apply Apply: Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming 22 Peters Rd Bloomfield, CT 06002 Phone: 860-243-2300 Fax 860-243-3100

\Send resumes & salary requirements to:

Request for Proposals Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) ProjectBased Assistance Program to Support the Development of Affordable Housing Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Project- Based Assistance Program to Support the Development of Affordable Housing. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing. cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 3:00PM.

INVITATION TO BID

Northeast Building Group is accepting bids from qualified Minority/Female Business Enterprises for an upcoming project “REVITALIZATION OF THE OAK TERRACE HOUSING COMPLEX” located at 53 Conrad Street, Naugatuck, CT. Bids will be accepted by mail, fax, or email until 5:00PM on January 31, 2017, after which the bids will be privately opened. The project entails renovation of 188 housing units in 39 buildings. Trades include: site work, paving, utilities, abatement, rough carpentry, architectural woodwork, doors, frames and hardware, drywall, tiling, resilient flooring and base, painting, toilet accessories, appliances, window treatments, residential casework, plumbing, HVAC and electrical. Interested Connecticut DAScertified MBEs, DBEs, and WBEs are encouraged to submit bids and may contact Tim Burke by phone at 203-678-4030 or email at tburke@truebluecos.com to obtain plans and specifications. Bids received after 5:00PM on January 31, 2017 will be disqualified. Northeast Building Group is an is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer, 98 S. Turnpike Road, Suite F, Wallingford, CT 06492. Tel: 203-6784030 Fax: 203-678-4136.

The Housing Authority of the City of Bristol Request for Proposals Interior Painting Services The Housing Authority City of Bristol (BHA) is seeking proposals for Vacant / Occupied Apartment Painting Services from qualified vendors for work throughout the Agency.

Bidder Information packets can be obtained by contacting Carl Johnson, Director of Capital Funds at 860-585-2028 or cjohnson@bristolhousing.org beginning Wednesday, December 28, 2016 through Friday, January 13, 2017. A nonmandatory pre-bid meeting will be held Friday, January 13, 2017, 2:00pm at 164 Jerome Avenue, Bristol Connecticut.

All proposals should be clearly marked “RFP- Interior Painting”, submitted to Mitzy Rowe, CEO, The Housing Authority City of Bristol, 164 Jerome Avenue, Bristol, CT 06010, no later than 4:00 p.m., Friday January 20, 2017 at the office of the Bristol Housing Authority in a sealed envelope with one original and 3 copies, each clearly identified as Proposal for Interior Painting Services.

An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Contractor

Bridge Repair Crew –

must have reliable transportation and be willing to travel statewide, Operator, Driver, Laborer, M/F, 5-15 years Heavy Highway Exp, OSHA 10, Immediate Opening 860-664-8042, Fax 860-664-9175michelle@ occllc.com EOE, AA, Females and Minorities encouraged to apply Public Safety Dispatcher: The Town of East Haven seeks to fill 2 permanent part-time positions.

The hourly rate of pay is $24/hour. The work schedule is Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 am-4:00 pm or Sunday and Monday, 4:00 pm -12:00 am. Candidates must possess a High School diploma or GED, State of Connecticut Telecommunication Certification, Priority Dispatch EMD Certification, Priority Dispatch EPD and EFD Certification is preferred, Nexgen LEAS Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) experience is preferred, prior COLLECT/NCIC certification is preferred, and Next Generation 911 System is preferred. Candidate must successfully pass a background investigation, fingerprinting, and a Medical exam including a drug screening as well as have the ability to distinguish and identify different colors and pass a hearing test and NCIC Training. Only qualified applicants should apply at www.PoliceApp.com/EastHavenCT. The fee to apply is $40 and the deadline is December 16, 2016.

The Town of East Haven is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Minorities, Females, Veterans and Handicapped are encouraged

Elm City Communities

to apply.

Account Clerk-Payables: The Town of East Haven is currently accepting applications to participate in the examination for Account Clerk-Payables. The current vacancy is in the Finance Department of the Board of Education but this list may be used to fill other Account Clerk positions within the Town of East Haven. The starting hourly rate is $18.78/hour, 37.5 hours per week. Candidate must possess a High School Diploma or equivalent and an Associate’s Degree in Accounting or equivalent experience, and a minimum of 3 years’ experience in accounts payable and a thorough working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel. Applications are available from The Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven, CT or at http://www. townofeasthavenct.org/civiltest.shtml and must be returned by January 24, 2017. The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals. Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

27

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

LEGAL NOTICE The Bristol Housing Authority is developing its 2017-2021 Agency Plans in compliance with the HUD Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998. It is available for review at the Authority’s office located at 164 Jerome Ave., Bristol, CT. The Authority’s hours of operation are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Thursday 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

In addition, a Public Hearing will be held on February 16, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. at Gaylord Towers Community Hall located at 55 Gaylord Street, Bristol, CT. Public comments will be received no later than February 27, 2017 at 4:30 p.m. EOE

Grants Administration

Program Planning Administrator-Seeking a highly qualified professional to administer, manages, and oversees the Town’s Grants and Economic Development Programs. Serves as a representative on various intergovernmental and interagency organizations. The minimum qualifications: Bachelor’s degree from a recognized college or university in government or public administration plus three years (3) of progressively responsible public administration and at least two years (2) of grant writing experience or an equivalent combination of education and qualifying experience substituting on a year-for-year basis. $77,695-$99,410 plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Closing date will be December 15, 2016. EOE.

ELECTRICIANS

Semac Electric is seeking Electricians (CT Licensed Journeymen & Foremen, E1 and E2) to join our team for medium & large commercial construction projects thru out the State of CT: Hartford, Fairfield & New Haven Counties. We have excellent wages and benefits. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applications available at our main office at 45 Peter Court, New Britain, CT or send resume to P.O. Box 638, New Britain, CT 06050 or via fax to 860-229-0406 or email: careers@ semacelectric.com

Mechanical Insulator

Insulation Company offering good pay and benefits.

Please forward resume to P.O. Box 475, North Haven, CT 06473 This company is an APPRENTICE

Telecommunications Company looking for apprentice to learn indoor and outdoor low voltage cable installation, aerial bucket work, messenger and lashing; manhole and underground installation. Good salary with benefits. Fax resume to 860-6432124 or mail to Fibre Optic Plus, 302 Adams Street, Manchester, CT 06042.

Attn: Greg Brown AA/EEO Employer AFFIRMATIVE ACTION / EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT

Electrical Apprentice Maintenance Electrician - The Town of Wallingford Public Utilities, Electric Division is seeking an individual to perform maintenance and installation of electrical equipment such as but not limited to maintaining and repairing high and low voltage equipment. Position requires completion of high school, technical high school or trade school plus two (2) years’ experience in electrical maintenance or construction OR an equivalent combination of education and qualifying experience substituting on a year-for-year basis.

Must possess and maintain a valid State of Connecticut motor vehicle operator’s license. Wages: $24.63– $32.77 hourly and an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Fax #: (203) 294-2084. The closing date will be the date the 75th application or resume is received or January 30, 2017 whichever occurs first. EOE.

Common Ground High School Seeks Curriculum Development Consultant Common Ground High School is seeking an experienced, creative professional who can work with teachers, school leaders, students, families, and community partners to strengthen our curriculum and classroom teaching — ensuring it is driven by standards, rooted in our local community and unique site, culturally relevant and inclusive, contributing to social justice, and pushing students towards both environmental leadership and college success. For a complete job description and compensation information, please visit http:// commongroundct.org/2017/01/common-ground-seeks-curriculum-development-consultant

is seeking bids for Janitorial Services. Bidding documents can be viewed and printed at www. norwalkha.org under the business tab, RFPs/ RFQs. Norwalk Housing Authority is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Curtis O. Law, Executive Director

Dispatcher - Portland Candidate must have 2-5 years relevant experience in hazardous waste transportation. Must have completed 40 HAZWOPER Certification, Asbestos Awareness Certification a plus. Forward resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 173 Pickering Street, Portland, CT 06480; Fax 860.342.1042; or Email to HR@ redtechllc.com RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

ELECTRICIANS

Class A CDL Driver with 3 years min. exp. HAZMAT Endorsed. (Tractor/Triaxle/Roll-off) Some overnights may be required. FAX resumes to RED Technologies, at 860.342-1042;

Semac Electric is seeking Electricians (CT Licensed Journeymen & Foremen, E1 and E2) to join our team for medium & large commercial construction projects thru out the State of CT: Hartford, Fairfield & New Haven Counties. We have excellent wages and benefits. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applications available at our main office at 45 Peter Court, New Britain, CT or send resume to

Class A Driver Email: HR@redtechllc.com Mail or in person: 173 Pickering Street, Portland, CT 06480.

RED Technologies, LLC is An EOE.

Look Like Without HBCUs THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

By Trina Christian Coleman, HBCUDigetst.com

Could the nation be going back to the future on racial segregation?

From ship to shore. From slave to scholar. Two completely different but intricately entwined journeys that Blacks have embarked upon while Europeans conquered the Native Americans and rebranded America as their own.

A major milestone marking the evolution of this nation was the legislative emancipation, after approximately 245 years, of a people that were imported into it as commodities, like Italian marble or computer hard drives.

There was no return address nor 30-day return policy for the byproducts of the original cargo, so another rebranding campaign had to happen: if recently freed slaves have to exist alongside the plantation owners and their families, then now educating them seems like a good idea. However, of course, with the caveat that new schools to accommodate these recently freed men and women had to be built and overseen for this experiment to work.

Surprisingly, the number of free Blacks prior to emancipation was not negligible. In 1860, nearly 500,000 Blacks, approximately 10% of the total, were free.

However the newly freed would have to be dealt with enmasse. The concept of unconditional freedom was/is completely orthogonal to the framework that was constructed as America; Blacks and college were originally never intended to pair up here.

The solution was seemingly straightforward; build more schools and start admitting the newly emancipated to all schools, without discrimination for race, gender or color. Prior to the Civil War, some schools had already been established for the explicit purpose of educating Blacks, and other non-Black schools were admitting free Blacks. However, endorsement and support from the government would be needed to educate them all.

The Morrill Act of 1862 was written to address the need for

a more educated population in the areas of agriculture and the mechanical arts. Land was given, or granted to each member of Congress to help each state roll this initiative out.

That was, in my opinion, a way to appease a lot with a little: former slaves could perfect the crafts that they used to do for free, and former slave owners could hire them back at a nominal rate. The packaging of the Morrill Act implies that until emancipation, there wasn’t a dire need for instructionallybased expertise in agriculture or mechanical arts, nor was there a need to have large quantities of educated people of color.

Some states refused to comply with the non-discriminatory admissions aspect of the Morrill

Act. The second version, the Morrill Act of 1890, was written to appease the lawmakers of these states, and provide federally supported educational facilities that Blacks could attend. These segregated, land-grant public institutions of higher learning are the on-the-record justification for, what we now call, Historically Black Colleges and Universities or HBCUs. The A&Ts and A&Ms that we know are direct products of the indignant denial by some whites to acknowledge that slaves were now former slaves. (Today all colleges and universities that were established to serve Blacks are generically referred to as HBCUs) By looking at the map, it’s not too difficult to notice a correlation between 1890 politics and 21st

29

century politics. Most of the resistant states were considered southern Confederate states. The geographic positioning of the 1890 land-grant institutions are clearly located in places where we as a people were not welcome as citizens.

The past Presidential election underscored the fact that the politics of this map haven’t changed much.

From GOP rally rhetoric to racial slurs and violence, southern and rural whites are apparently still not on board with the concept of inclusion. The attempts to nullify targeted groups of legal voters in several “red states” were rampant.

Unfortunately for us, the majority of our HBCUs are within the boundaries of these states.

HBCUs are currently being targeted for dismantlement.

Scrutiny regarding questions of legitimacy and relevance, publicly deeming HBCU leadership as ineffective, accreditation matters, etc. are setting the stage.

Mergers with PWI state colleges and universities have also been proposed.

Imagine an America where HBCUs no longer exist. The hallowed halls that educated generations of African-Americans are now renamed and repurposed, or completely demolished. Rebrand America version 3.0 occurs to provide a facade of equality.

Opportunity for all everywhere will once again be the mandate, but

the mandate will assuredly come with disclaimers and conditions.

In my vision, exclusion or disqualification will take many forms; the literacy tests that were once used to deny Blacks the right to vote immediately come to mind.

Credit rating, financial aid and student loan availability, GPAs, SAT scores, community service, extracurricular activities, and legacy status are a few of the things that will become larger obstacles to clear. These admission criteria will not prevent all African-Americans from college admission, but some combination of them will likely prevent most.

In a “United States” without HBCUs, over time HBCUs will gradually fade away into a revised version of history like all other unpleasantries that bind Black America to white. HBCUs are more than just institutions of higher learning; they are safe havens free of the marginalization of any people to pursue dreams while gaining knowledge. They are the homes of legacies and traditions that we proudly display and uphold. They are the alma maters of those who fought for civil rights and social injustices, made scientific and medical discoveries, wrote and composed works of literature, music and art.

Mathematically speaking, to ‘do a 180’ is to start out facing in one direction and end up facing the opposite direction. This phrase is used in general conversation to describe drastic change, however it is sometimes incorrectly stated by saying ‘do a 360’. In math lingo, a 360 starts and ends in the same place, by traveling in a circle.

If we lose our HBCUs, the 360 will assuredly be a more accurate description of drastic change for the timeline of Blacks in America.

Our Historically Black Colleges and Universities need our support more than ever. Please consider what the consequences of doing nothing could bring.

Dr. Trina L. Coleman is a proud three-time graduate of Hampton University. Opinions in this piece are her own.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07, 2017

EDUCATE ME FOUNDATION WORKING TO GROW THE NUMBER OF BLACK TEACHERS FOR BLACK STUDENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Operating in its first year, it has more than 60 would-be and current educators on its roster. It serves as a “teacher agent,” Nathan said, aiding prospects in finding jobs across the country. It has placed teachers in positions in Atlanta, Houston, New York, Miami and Nashville, among other cities.

By Curtis Bunn, Urban News Service

The axiom, “Those who cannot do, teach,” missed the point, as far as Blake Nathan is concerned.

In fact, Nathan created the Educate Me Foundation on a wholly opposite premise: To mentor and encourage African-American students, high school and college, to pursue careers in education, especially as teachers—and to help existing black teachers find new opportunities.

All with one goal, Nathan said: “To increase the number of African-American teachers in classrooms where they would have a cultural connection. That dynamic makes a huge difference for black students.”

Nathan, 27, speaks from his own experience. Growing up outside of Atlanta, he said he had just three black teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade. An engineering major at historically black Tennessee State University, he said he had just five African-American professors.

Then, as a middle school teacher of engineering and technology, in Indianapolis, Nathan said he was the only black male teacher in his district.

“There are hundreds of thousands of (black) students who have the same story as me,” he told Urban News Service. “Having taught black students, I know how important it is for them to have someone who has been where they are, someone who can relate to them on a personal level and have that cultural competency with them.

“There’s nothing like it. Teachers spend countless hours with students, and so it’s important that a student is able to express himself on a personal level at times and have teachers that have empathy for him, not sympathy. You also can give a kid tough love based on knowing the emotions that come with what he’s going through.”

Understanding this, Nathan launched the Educate Me Foundation. “I could sit in my classroom and write my lesson plan or I could do something about this issue,” he said. “I decided to do something.”

Four others followed Nathan’s “leap of faith” to make up his staff.

Everyone works as a volunteer, even Nathan as C.E.O. The national statistics moved them. According to the U.S. Department of Education, African Americans make up just 9 per cent of teaching work force—2 per cent male teachers. At the same time, a Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio) study of 23,544 black students showed that “having a black teacher for a

year influenced a significant 3 to 5 percentile-point increase in math scores. Reading test scores of black students with black teachers were 3 to 6 percentage points higher.”

Additionally, a series of experiments conducted at Stanford University found that African-American teachers “may be more generous with minority students, devoting more

30

time to them and making more favorable assumptions about their capabilities.”

Nathan developed the Educate Me Foundation to address those statistics. It is a multi-faceted organization that, in addition to its placement services, hosts an annual HBCU Tour that attracts more than 300 students and enlightens them on the value of a career in education.

Last year, Educate ME partnered with eight school districts and charter school networks. “(Often) trainers have no clue on how to retain (black) teachers in an urban school setting,” said Dixeen Tolliver, a sixth-grade teacher for 25 years in the Richmond, Virginia school system. “Many other teachers of different cultures lack the patience and understanding it takes to reach African-American students. And many of the ones who try to have patience tend to limit the students’ ability instead of having empathy. . . Educate Me is a necessity.”

Said Malik Williams, a freshman at Georgia State University in Atlanta: “I’m for anything that creates more black teachers. I went to private schools and I had just three black teachers. But I felt there was much more of a connection with the AfricanAmerican teachers. Other students talked about it, too. Having a teacher, you can relate to helps you to connect and believe in yourself more.”

The stigma that teaching is a low-paying, thankless job is a disconnect with Nathan. “A doctor would take 10 years after graduating college to make good money,” he said. “But as a teacher, in 10 years, you can elevate up the ranks, to assistant principal or administrator and make six figures.

“I made $40,000 last year, working just eight months. But I coached baseball and a step team that earned me more money.

And while my friends who made $60,000 were working all summer, I was off and relaxing at home for four months. So, it’s a misconception. There’s money out there in education.

“Every district in the country is looking for competent black teachers to work with black students, to resonate with them.

We’re working to be that pipeline that brings it all together.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS February 01, 2017 - February 07 , 2017

N E W H AV E N PU B LI C S C H O O L S

SCHOOL CHOICE EXPOS re You’ ! ed invit

Wednesday, February 1, 6-8pm

Floyd Little Athletic Center / 480 Sherman Pkwy., New Haven, CT 06511

Saturday, February 4, 11-2pm

John S. Martinez Sea & Sky STEM School / 100 James St., New Haven, CT 06513

Choice.NHPS.net

N H P S C H O I C E & E N r O L L m E N t O f f I C E / 475 -22 0 -14 3 0 01