INNER-CITY NEWS

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 1527, , 2017 21, INNER-CITY NEWS July 2016- -March August 02,2017 2016

What Happened Women Got Through The Door Financial Justice aWhen Key Focus at 2016 NAACP Convention New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS Volume 27 No. 2224 Volume 21. No. 2194

Paca:

“DMC”

Students Can Help Us Improve Schools

Color Struck?

DeLauro On Trumpcare:

An Opera in Jazz: Terrance Blanchard’s “Champion”

Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime”

Snow in July?

Delays On Kimber School, Superintendent Search FOLLOW ON “Women Will Die”USNew 1

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

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A Field Trip Of Dreams THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

by DAVID SEPULVEDA NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

For Steve Driffin, ConnCAT Center program manager at Lincoln-Bassett Community School, taking a large group of girls to see the hit movie Hidden Figures was not just about going on a fun field trip; it was an investment in the girls’ futures and a strong statement about possibilities.

The Oscar-nominated movie, based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly, brings to light a history that has been largely hidden from the common history of America’s nascent space exploration program and overlooked in some history books.

Hidden Figures tells the story of a group of talented AfricanAmerican female mathematicians, referred to as “computers,” who worked for NASA before the arrival of IBM’s early mainframe computers. The women of the West Computing group battled racism, segregation, sexism, and low expectations, even as their brilliant calculation acumen and problem-solving skills proved pivotal in helping launch John Glenn into orbit, and with him, America’s capacity to explore space.

Steve Driffin was also reaching for the stars when he was tagged in a Facebook post by a friend who, like Driffin, had been observing how schools across the country were taking advantage of the chance to bring students to see Hidden Figures. On that Facebook thread was Cold Spring School Director of Admissions Sara Armstrong, who contacted Driffin offering to help with a field trip for some New Haven students. Driffin had an audience ready to go: students from the ConnCAT afterschool program and the pre-K-8 Lincoln-Basset School.

The idea for a girls’ night out to see Hidden Figures was hatched, and the brainstorming began: “Why don’t we take them out in style? Let’s have them dress up and let’s rent a party limousine (Yeah!!!), and afterwards, have a post-show discussion with some good food, and positive women

DAVID SEPULVEDA PHOTOS

Dream ride.

Field trip to Cinemart Theaters in North Haven.

who are New Haven firsts,” Driffin posted in a GoFundMe online campaign to raise funds for the trip. Driffin was adamant about paying full price for the theater tickets, saying he wanted to support the movie to prove to the industry that black movie leads are good for business.

Inside the handsome ConnCAT Cafe at Science Park, as students gathered for the field trip, Driffin reflected on the multi-pronged project: “This is about excellence.

Why can’t we give our kids the best? This is not just a field trip — I want it to be an experience.”

Before departing for the movies, Driffin informed the students that “we’re not just going watch the movie — we have a job to do.”

The students were given note pads

and 10 questions to answer to help them stay focused on film content.

The experience began with a big surprise. Instead of the yellow school bus students were expecting, a gleaming black 25-passenger limousine party bus greeted them as they exited the building.

“That’s not a school bus!” exclaimed some students, followed by squeals of delight as they boarded the limo to see glowing blue lights and luxury wrap around style seating.

Once inside the theater, students would again enjoy special seating: reserved, luxury lounge chairs along with their freshly made popcorn.

After the movie, students shared their immediate thoughts about the film and the scenes that reso-

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nated most. New heroes had been discovered: “The lady, Katherine Johnson, she’s a woman I want to be like. She fought for what she wanted and expressed herself as a person who was equal to everybody else and not different at all,” said sixth-grader Fantaisha Smokes.

Back at ConnCAT headquarters more surprises awaited. ConnCAT Director of Programs Genevieve Walker led a guided tour of ConnCAT student art work and a photographic exhibit, “Countdown to Eternity,” which featured black-and-white images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., by Benedict J. Fernandez.

Chips, salad, sandwich roll-ups, and cookies were enjoyed during an informal conversation, followed by a moderated panel discussion with Ms. Walker and three guest panelists all women who battled odds and uncertainty en route to successful careers. The three panelists included Khalilah Brown-Dean, a professor of political science at Quinnipiac University; Debra Raine Vazquez, a civil engineer and STEM career awareness professional; and Tyra Pendergrass, a scientist and associate director for the Yale Center and Learning Games.

Each panelist shared stories of overcoming gender stereotyping, and of the internal motivation needed to rise above obstacles

on their way to achieving goals.

Pendergrass, a doctoral candidate, wearing a shirt that that read, “I am my ancestor’s wildest dreams,” acknowledged the groundbreakers who came before her.

“I recognize that I stand on the shoulders of giants, people that I may have never met or heard of there were sacrifices that were made for me to be where I am a little black girl from Florence, South Carolina, graduating from an Ivy league university there were sacrifices and for me to think I got here all on my own would be fooling myself,” she said.

Walker then guided the students through a series of positive affirmations: “I am amazing. I have everything in me already to be wildly successful. I will define success.

What I do not already have, I will find. I am amazing.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

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DeLauro On Trumpcare: “Women Will Die”

by LUCY GELLMAN NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

If “Trumpcare” passes, Democrats said Monday, thousands in Connecticut will lose their health insurance—and access to lifesaving care.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro drove that message home at a press conference at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England‘s (PPSNE) Whitney Avenue headquarters.

Joining PPSNE President Judy Tabar, Fair Haven Community Health Center CEO Suzanne Lagarde, New Haven Legal Assistance Attorney Sheldon Taubman, and Comprehensive Breast Health Center Surgical Director Kristen Zarfos, DeLauro addressed Republicans’ proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA), which is on track to replace Obamacare.

Her response: If the bill passes, people will die. And many of them will be Connecticut’s women.

“I don’t mean to overstate this, but more women will die,” said DeLauro. “More women will die.”

Proposed earlier this month, the AHCA is an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act that passed in 2012. The bill would offer refundable tax credits for people to use as subsidies when buying insurance, It would also revise current provisions of Medicaid coverage, eliminating a previous expansion of people who eligible and undoing Medicaid’s three-month retroactive coverage and removing Planned Parenthood from eligible Medicaid providers (among other major changes).

In Connecticut, PPSNE’s services currently reach 60,000 women, over 50 percent of whom are on Medicaid. (Those services, many in medically underserved areas, reach another 10,000 patients in Rhode Island.) If the organization

DeLauro: More women will die.

Toubman: We can’t afford repealing Medicare expansion.

is removed from eligible providers, Tabar said, thousands of women— and some male patients—will go without breast and cervical cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, pelvic exams, routine pap smears, and contraceptive services that prevent unwanted pregnancies. And as a result, she continued, she believes that many of them will become sick and die from preventable causes.

The state’s community health centers, added Lagarde, don’t have the capacity to accept those patients.

“This is the biggest fight we’ve ever

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had before us,” said Tabar. “We will never stop fighting. We will make sure these doors stay open.”

But that won’t be easy, she added.

The AHCA would cut Medicaid expansion, a feature of ACA that added Medicaid eligibility to those at 133 percent of the poverty level nationwide, and 185 percent in the state of Connecticut, by January 2020. Speaking after the event, Toubman credited expansion with helping an extra 217,000 Connecticut residents get insured, bringing statewide numbers to a total of 770,000 on some form of Medicaid.

With the repeal of expansion, he

said, the state would lose a federal $689 million—and people, no longer able to afford their premiums, would choose not to renew their insurance.

An analysis released Monday from the state’s Office of Policy and Management offered further estimates.

“The average person in Connecticut would receive an estimated $2,115 less in assistance, with those over 60 receiving an average of almost $5,000 less,” it reads. In addition, it projects that “more than 34,000 Access Health CT customers would not renew coverage,” and that “rate increases of more than 40 percent could be expected in 2018 for all healthcare consumers.”

Republicans supporting the bill disagree. Told that DeLauro predicted that “women will die,” Southington Republican State Rep. Joe Markley dismissed the claim as “smacking of hyperbole.”

“It seems clear that, as it is structured currently, the ACA is in need of reform,” said Markley, adding that he needs to know more about the particulars of the AHCA before making a judgement on the bill itself.

“Depending on which side you are on, there’s a tendency to say ‘the sky is falling’ when the sky isn’t actually falling.”

Matos Named A “Proprietor” THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

A prominent immigrant rights organizer, Kica Matos, has just joined New Haven’s most exclusive club — with a mission of making New Haven’s communal core more inclusive.

Matos is the newest member of New Haven’s five-member Committee of the Proprietors of Common and Undivided Lands at New Haven.

The group, not the city government, has owned the 16-acre New Haven Green since the early 17th century.

It sets the rules for what can happen there; it contracts with the city parks department to maintain it.

It is a self-perpetuating group, which means its members choose new members. Historically the group, with roots running back to New Haven’s Puritan settlers, represented the city’s WASP elite, but its makeup has diversified in recent years. Matos fills a seat last held

by Yale Law School Professor Drew Days, a career civil-rights advocate who served as President Bill Clinton’s solicitor general. U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who made a career in private practice defending

LUCY GELLMAN PHOTO

Matos at February Cahoun College protest.

workers’ rights, chairs the Proprietors.

The other members are former Albertus Magnus President Julia McNamara, retired banker Robert Dannies, and philanthropist Anne Tyler Calabresi, a descendant of original proprietor Theophilus Eaton, who founded the colony along with John Davenport.

Matos, who is 50 years old and lives in

Fair Haven, crafted New Haven’s immigrant-friendly policies as a top city official a decade ago. She has since assumed national leadership roles in the immigrant-rights movement. She also organized protests successfully calling for Yale to rename its Caolhoun residential college; she was arrested last month in a civil-disobedience action

at one such protest.

“I’m excited,” Matos said of her selection as a proprietor. “I love the Green.

It’s a beautiful space that brings the community together.”

In these times of protest, she observed, “the Green is a place where we’re going to see democracy fulfilled” in New Haven.

ings in New Haven while also giving young people second chances. Her prosecutors and city detectives now meet weekly to share intelligence and plot strategy.

Under Daly’s direction, her office has also worked with city police and community groups to improve ties between law enforcement and the public.

In the wake of protests over police shootings of civilians around the country, her office organized a Civil Rights Summit that brought included Muslim, NAACP and LGBTQ rights activists; enlisted an African-American ex-

FBI agent to train people about how to deal with cops without getting hurt.

She organized a Community Policing Week series of events to recognize effective cops while also bringing police critics face to face with prosectuors and chiefs. She openly addressed questions raised about decisions made by her office. She came up with the idea for a “cops and ballers” tournament bring teams of law enforcement officers and citizens on the basketball court for friendly competition.

Chief Campbell, who worked with Daly on that tournament as well as other efforts, this weekend called her “a true class act,” someone who “truly understands the importance of keeping people safe” and who “genuinely cares about the community.”

“Deirdre Daly was not just the first female U.S. attorney in the state of Connecticut,” Campbell said. “She was by far one of the best U.S. attorneys that this state has ever known. ...

[She] brought all of the law enforcement community closer together. New Haven is a safer, healthier and richer community thanks to Deirdre Daly.”

When the opiolds crisis hit the state, Daly set up a task force to concentrate on prosecuting dealers and invited families to speak publicly about the

She spoke of how the Green right now is “kind of tired” physically and of looking forward to participating in beautification efforts.

Those efforts are underway, along with a campaign by the Proprietors to involve more of New Haven in its efforts. The traditionally secretive group is putting together a website. And it has hired retired city parks official Christy Haas to carry out a new vision for the Green involving more public events throughout the year and planting thousands of new flowers.

The state legislature affirmed the proprietors’ legal right to control the Green in 1683, then again in 1723.

Supporters consider the proprietors responsible civic leaders who protect the public interest. Critics cast the institution, in the words of one lawyer (Norm Pattis) who went to court to try to end its reign, “a sort of geriatric Skull and Bones Society, a secret society open to membership only upon invitation of those deemed acceptable to current members ... a colonial vestige that is governed by folks elected in secret and holding office for life.”

Daly To Stay On As U.S. Attorney Until October

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

It turns out that Deirdre M. Daly isn’t packing up quite yet.

Daly, who announced her resignation last week as U.S. attorney and handed the reins to a deputy, announced a change in plans Monday: She will now stay on until October, when she reaches the 20-year mark in holding various posts in the Justice Department.

She will assist in the transition to a new appointee of President Donald Trump.

“I thank the Attorney General and the Administration for affording me the opportunity to remain as the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut so that I might complete 20 years of service to the Department of Justice in October,” Daly was quoted as saying in a release issued by her office. “I look forward to continuing to work on behalf of the residents of Connecticut in my remaining time, and I will focus on an orderly transition as I complete what has been a rewarding tenure in the office.”

At the request of President Donald Trump, Deirdre M. Daly has resigned as Connecticut’s top federal prosecutor — and New Haven Police Chief

Deirdre M. Daly

Anthony Campbell, for one, will miss her.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Gustafson is overseeing the New Haven-based office of 63 attorneys until Trump names a permanent replacement.

Changes of U.S. attorneys are common when new presidents take office.

Since assuming the post of U.S. attorney in 2013, Daly has overseen her office’s collaboration with city police in an anti-gang violence program called Project Longevity, which has been credited with helping to reduce shoot-

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problem.

President Trump, like his predecessors, asked for many his U.S. attorneys (46 in this case) to offer their resignations. His attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has vowed to take the Justice Department in a new direction on civil rights, police accountability, and drug enforcement.

Both of Connecticut’s Democratic U.S. senators issued statements this weekend praising Daly’s tenure.

“She is totally non-partisan, and her thoughtless removal makes for a sad day for our state,” Sen. Chris Murphy stated.

In a statement released by her office, Daly called serving as U.S. attorney “the gift of a lifetime.”

“I am extremely proud of the tremendous accomplishments of the men and women of this office during my tenure,” she stated. “I applaud their tireless work holding our most violent offenders accountable, protecting our children and our environment, standing up for our most vulnerable victims, and not hesitating to stand up to the powerful. Together, we also built bridges and trust with communities.

I hope all of this work continues to thrive.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

New Delays On Kimber School, Superintendent Search

by THOMAS BREEN

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

As the end of the school year approaches, two administrative questions loom over the near future of the district: Will the city have a new charter school come this fall? And who will be hired to lead the district as its new superintendent?

Continued delays at the Board of Education mean that New Haven students, teachers, and parents will have to wait at least a few weeks longer for answers to both of those questions.

At its bimonthly meeting at the L.W. Beecher School on Monday night, the board did not vote on, or formally discuss, a controversial resolution to create C.M. Cofield Academy, an allboys’ local charter school championed

by Newhallville’s Rev. Boise Kimber.

But the school proposal’s very absence from the meeting’s agenda nevertheless proved to be a fertile topic for frustration and debate.

Board member Darnell Goldson, who had formally proposed the resolution at the board’s previous meeting and who has been a strong ally of Kimber in his push to establish the new charter school, voiced his discontent at the delay during a heated 15-minute exchange with board president Daisy Gonzalez at the beginning of the meeting.

“I believe this was a deliberate attempt to block my ability to bring my resolution to this board because you do not support it,” Goldson said, accusing Gonzalez of acting in bad faith when she did not invite or solicit input from Goldson during an agendasetting meeting last Thursday that she had with board member Dr. Ed Joyner and Interim Superintendent Dr. Reggie Mayo.

“That is unfair,” Goldson continued.

“I hope we do not see more of this in the future, because when we changed leadership at the board, we said very specifically that we would not do this kind of stuff anymore. And now, at the second or third meeting that you’ve chaired, here it comes again.”

Gonzalez called the omission of the Cofield Academy resolution from the agenda an oversight on her part. Although she would not identify exactly who had put together the agenda, she took full responsibility for not properly vetting the list of topics for discussion.

Some board members have expressed reservations about the proposal for various reasons: Cost, concept (teaching boys separately, functioning as a city charter school), and process. (It began soliciting students and had a spot on the board’s website and at a recruiting fair before it even came up for consideration.)

“There’s a larger issue here,” Goldson

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

Joyner, Goldson at Monday’s board meeting.

Kimber: “I’m going to talk tonight.”

Dawson, Mayo.

said. “We agree as a group to follow certain rules and procedures, and to have a transparent process. We did not follow those rules. I work up in South Windsor, which is nearly an hour away. I don’t need to drive all the way down here if I’m just going to be window dressing for this leadership team.”

Later in the evening, Rev. Kimber spoke with passionate frustration in support of the new charter school, offering a defiant speech that far exceeded the bounds of the three and a half minutes allotted to each speaker during the public participation section of the meeting.

“This is about educating our children, our boys,” he said, looking to counter testimony offered right before he spoke, by former board member Alicia Caraballo. Caraballo argued

that Cofield Academy would incur significant staff and building costs for the city while only serving 100 students, dividing them from their peers by race, and still maintaining a fair amount of regulatory independence as a charter school.

“This ain’t even about me,” Kimber said. “This is about the kids, young boys who have no future without somebody going and helping them. I’m appalled at the rhetoric and the conniving, and I’m going to talk tonight, because I’m not going to talk about this anymore.

So you all are going to sit and listen. I hear what you are saying about segregation. But we are currently segregated by zip code. I grew up in segregation, under the leadership of George Wallace in Alabama. I went to an all-black school. Dr. Mayo went to all-black col-

8

lege. Mr. Joyner went to an all-black college.

“With this board or without this board, I’ll be back. Because this project is about our children. And I would hope that this board here would put a comprehensive plan together that would teach boys and girls how to read, write their names in cursive, and do math. ” Still Searching for a Search Firm One of the topics that did make it onto the agenda was an update from the board’s governance committee on the search for a new superintendent.

Board member Che Dawson announced that his committee is still deciding between firms to hire to conduct the search. He said he would not be able to present a final recommendation for a search firm until the next board meeting.

Since the ouster of Superintendent Garth Harries in October, previously retired Superintendent Reggie Mayo has been serving as interim superintendent, making $750 per day for a maximum of $130,500 during a tenure initially expected to end in June.

However, after Dawson announced at last month’s meeting that the board was still deciding between three search firms, Mayo agreed to extend his ten-

ure as interim superintendent as the search for a permanent replacement plods along past the original schedule.

Dawson and his team had narrowed the group of three search firms down to two, and had even tentatively picked a top choice. But that top choice proved to be a riskier bet than he had initially realized.

“In defense of Che,” Ed Joyner said, “he recently found out that one of the search firms we were considering had done a horrible job in a particular school district just like ours, even though they had done a pretty jazzy presentation. You can’t find a good superintendent based on the charisma of the presenter. So when Mr. Dawson got that information, he decided that that firm had made some egregious errors and that we should not consider them. We don’t want to rush too fast and hire the wrong people.”

Reluctant to go with the last remaining firm simply by default, Dawson said that he had invited that firm to re-present before the governance committee during its meeting on March 20. After that presentation, he said, he will submit a final recommendation for a search firm to the larger board for approval.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

What Happened When Women Got Through The Door

by ALLAN APPEL NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

On a bracing March day about 40 years ago, the members of the women’s Yale crew team got tired of waiting, shivering after practice, for the boys to finish their showers. So they stripped naked in the gymnasium and wrote “Title IX” on their bodies to make a point.

New and slow to co-education, and even slower at providing facilities and equipment for its women athletes, Yale University in 1976 was on the receiving end of that demonstration, underlining the need for women’s showers and facilities equal to those of men.

That red-letter moment got a lot of media attention and is credited with advancing gender equity at schools that receive federal funds.

It’s also one of the highlights of “588 Superwomen and 4,000 Male Leaders,” part of the annual exhibition of student research projects on view at Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library, on view until Apr. 28.

Naked Equality The display on the achievements of the first classes of women at Yale was created by anthropology major Helen Price, based on her research in a history department course. It is both revelatory and, at least by the grace of 40 years’ hindsight, a hoot.

It shares the library corridor, just off Sterling’s cavernous nave, with three other vitrines each showcasing a student interest as advanced

by poking around in library resources, with a resulting display of the findings.

While the point of the group show is to highlight student achievement and the library’s deep

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resources, the results are not only a touching reminder of the subjects still resonant for undergrads today; they also open windows on histories worth peering into by the general public as well.

How many of us knew, for example, how slow Yale was to respond to the growing “experiment” in coeducation?

According to the informative labels that Price has provided, “Yale was late to a national trend — 75 percent of U.S. colleges were coeducational by 1965…. The decision making process was slowed by the strong opinions of alumni: While many supported coeducation, others were vehemently opposed and threatened to end their donations should women be admitted to Yale.”

In 1976, five years after the first class of women had been admitted, the athletes still felt compelled to conduct their demonstration and send their letter of protest and demand to the head of Yale athletics.

That letter, dated March 3, 1976,

10

included: “These are the bodies Yale is exploiting.”

While the women may have struggled with showers, bathrooms, and re-defining a female version of the stereotyped “Yale man,” the guys appeared to like the idea unequivocally.

Price in her exhibit shows a Yale Daily News article by Paul Taylor, reviewing an experimental weekend back in 1968, the year before the first class of women was selected.

That’s when 700 women came to Yale for several days of classes. He writes that the women’s presence on campus caused the men to realize they had “existed here abnormally for so long.”

Graduate student Camille Owen has excavated the little-known life of a 19th-century blind, AfricanAmerican child genius — Oscar Moore — who, under the tutelage of his white managers, displayed feats of “memory or mathematics” beginning when he was two years old.

According the P.T. Barnum-style hyped advertisements for the performances, Oscar took a break from nursing at his mom’s breast to correct his older siblings’ mistakes at the multiplication tables. {media_4}He apparently was also able to memorize anything thrown his way from an audience, and to tally up the number of books, chapters, and verses in the Bible.

The one extant photo of Moore, which Owen has been able to unearth, shows the intense child, hardly more than an infant, in his be-ribboned finery and shiny shoes bestriding a volume, suggesting he knew everything inside it.

Owen bemoans the fact that nothing actually written by Moore, who disappears from the records she’s been able to cull when he was sixteen, has been found. He “cannot appear except through the words of his white managers, audiences, and inquisitors,” Owen writes.

Still, what she’s found is eyeopening about what white Americans at the end of the 19th century may have thought of as brightness and genius, particularly in an African-American.

The two other mini-exhibitions are “Between Scrapbook and Scalpel,” organized by Rebecca Straub, and “Palmyra, ISIS, and the Restorative Power of Digital Archeology,” by Maria de las Mercedes Martinez-Milantchi.

Straub, an art history major, shows the charming ostrich drawings made by a very young Harvey Cushing. She’s suggesting that before Cushing went on to become a pioneering neurosurgeon his contributions to medicine in World War One are now on view in his eponymous library at the Yale Medical School — maybe he was thinking of a career in art.

Martinez-Milantchi uses 3D prints and imagery to create models of the Temple of Bel and other monuments that ISIS deliberately destroyed in Palmyra, Syria in 2015.

If you like your exhibitions like tapas, a kind of tasty tasting menu of interesting subjects across a range of worlds, this one’s for you.

It’s free and open to the general public.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

Rescue House Emptied: Rescuer In Limbo

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

The cats and cat corpses are gone.

Neighbors rarely smell the stench anymore. Now the question is: What happens to the house? And the kind man who lived there?

The house in question is a one-family colonial on Winthrop Avenue between Percival and Goffe in the Beaver Hills neighborhood.

For years neighbors noticed cats coming in and out of the house. They knew and liked the owner who fed the cats.

Then they started smelling a foul odor.

Often. It got so bad the city had to come in and condemn the house last Aug. 31. Then crews spent days clearing out what turned out to be many Dumpsters’ worth of hoarded junk — including hundreds of old VHS tapes and destroyed fixtures — piled layers deep inside the torn-apart, uninhabitable building, which long lacked running water.

Months later, neighbors report smelling odors only occasionally, on warmer days. The boarded-up house continues airing out, its windows open to the elements, as officials work to give it a future. This past Monday night the Board of Alders retroactively approved a $41,000 emergency procurement that the city government’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), spent clearing out the house. LCI hopes to recoup the money.

It has put a lien on the house for the money; assuming that the 74-year-old owner doesn’t pay it, the next step will be to foreclose on the property, then put it up for sale, said LCI Deputy Director Frank D’Amore.

The house’s owner wanders New Haven during the day with his belongings in two bags. He has money in the bank but no place to sleep, so he rides Metro-North trains until dawn.

“I messed up. I screwed up,” the owner acknowledged in an interview.

(He asked not to have his name published or any current photos; just the one above from last August.) He said he worked with the city for years to try to clean out his house, and despite repeated warnings, was caught by surprise on condemnation day.

Meanwhile, the city’s animal shelter continues to try to save the lives of, and find new homes for, some of the cats its staff removed from the house.

As masked city staffers worked with McVac Environmental and three other contractors to thoroughly clean the building in early September, the shelter’s staff poked through the mounds of rubbish to find live and dead felines the owner had been sheltering and feeding.

“We initially went through and picked

PAUL BASS PHOTO

Front of the Winthrop today.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Condemned home’s owner, second from left. with neighborhood top cop cop Sgt. John Wolcheski, second from right, and LCI’s Rick Mazzadra, as clean-up commenced.

11

up 24, 25 cats,” said police Officer Joe Manganiello, who oversees the shelter.

“We discovered that they were coming in and out of the house through different holes. There was so much trash in the house, it was difficult to capture them. They were burrowing in and out of the trash. That took a whole day to do that.”

Back at the shelter, staffers discovered that many of the females were pregnant. Soon they had another 10 or more kittens to deal with.

They began finding homes for the cats, but learned that some of them had ringworm, which is “difficult to eradicate in cats,” Manganiello said.

They tried to cure the cats of the infection. They succeeded in some cases, and found homes for those cats. They had to euthanize other infected cats.

The house’s owner contributed $2,000 toward the effort, Manganiello confirmed.

Seven months later, the staff is still working on curing and finding homes for the rest. “I was hoping it was something that would take a month to care of. You don’t realize how long it can carry on,” Manganiello said. He said several shelter staffers were infected with ringworm, one of them needing to take a week and half off work.

Other cats slipping in and out of the house were left alone because they were feral, Manganiello said.

Some cats still visit the house, according to Niyobe McMillian-Oglesby.

McMillian-Oglesby, who’s 42, has lived next door to the now-condemned Winthrop house since she was 3 years old (and lived one house over before that). She likes the neighborhood, she said and was relieved to watch last September’s clean-up.

“The garbage they took out of there — it was crazy!” she recalled. “It had to be four Dumpsters of stuff and that’s what I saw. And I work, so I’m sure I missed some of it.” She said she still smells lingering odors form the house when the temperature reaches 65 degrees.

“They told us to keep our windows closed for three days,” Rebecca Moore recalled of the clean-up. She lives in the house on the other side of the condemned house.

She said she appreciated the city’s work. “They haven’t finished the job,” she added, noting the house’s boards and empty windows and the litter surrounding it. The roof also has a hole.

Moore hasn’t seen the house’s owner, since the condemnation. She as well as other neighbors, LCI Deputy Director Rafael Ramos, and Manganiello spoke fondly of him. They described him as “educated,” friendly, pleasant to interact with, a man who cared about cats.

“I hope all is well with him.”

It is not all well with the owner.

The owner has $30,000 in the bank.

But he can’t seem to land a place to live. He won’t consider a homeless shelter, he said, because he has colitis; he needs to hit the bathroom every hour or so.

The roots of his practice of feeding cats began in 1999, when he lived in an apartment on Mansfield Street, he recalled in the interview Wednesday, which took place at a carrel in the basement of the public library, where he uses the computer to maintain contact with the outside world.

A native of White Plains, N.Y., he had come to Connecticut with his then-wife from California. He’d studied at Redlands University and then the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated in 1968 with a zoology degree, he said. He started out teaching middle school in Waterbury until the seventh-graders exhausted him, he said. He and his wife moved to New Haven for the livelier culture.

She left town when they divorced in the mid-1970s.

“I should have never gotten married in the first place; I’m a reclusive guy,” he said.

He stuck around and found a job with a pioneering autism support agency called Benhaven. The job lasted 20 years, much of it spent working overnight as a group home counselor.

In the Mansfield apartment, he discovered stray cats wandering the wooded area between his street and Prospect Street. He started feeding them. Then he discovered a colony of 20 cats.

At the time, his landlord, Yale, was evicting the man and his neighbors to convert apartments to student housing.

By the time they got the man out in 2000, he had grown attached to feeding the cats.

With savings, he found a house he could afford to buy, the circa-1920 one-family on Winthrop. He purchased it from the family of former Mayor John C. Daniels, according to city records.

For the first year he lived on Winthrop, he trekked nightly back to Mansfield Street to feed the cat colony. “I became obsessed with it,” he recalled. “I couldn’t imagine” not feeding them.

After a year, a regional group that feeds cats showed up and informed him it could handle the job from there.

By that time, the man had noticed a dozen wild cats living in his and his neighbors’ back yard. So he started feeding and caring for them. A vegan, he said he feels passionately about protecting animals. The neighbors didn’t like what he was doing at first, he recalled, but they eventually came

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

Library Supporters, Local 3144 Pitch Alders On Budget

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Hoping for a three-year streak, supporters made their pitch for increased funding of the city’s library system.

They joined Mondayunion city workers, a fire inspector and a supporter of the city’s now defunct hockey rink at City Hall Monday night in testifying at the Board of Alders Finance Committee’s opening public hearing on the mayor’s proposed fiscal 2017-2018 budget.

Mayor Toni Harp has proposed $554.5 million general fund budget for the coming year, representing a $31.2 million, or nearly 6 percent, increase.

It is billed as a status quo budget that includes no across the board tax increase.

Harp’s proposed budget would raise the library system’s current budget from $4.17 million to $4.2 million.

Lobbying by library supporters helped lead to increases in previous years which allowed four major libraries in the system to be open one additional day from four to five days a week. The increase for next year is more modest; it covers a labor reorganization of librarian duties and raises. Part of that cost is offset by other budget reductions in maintenance agreements.

Supporters Monday asked alders to protect that increase so that the library can continue to offer services that New Haven Free Public Library Board of

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Local

3144 showed up in force for the hearing.

Directors member Abigail Roth said have a multiplier effect. She told alders that last year’s budget increase resulted in a 21 percent increase in visits.

She said adults and children checked out 420,000 books, DVDs and other materials. In addition to providing safe communal places, access to technology and social services, the libraries host community meetings and public art, she noted. “It is money well spent.”

NHFPL Foundation President Priscilla Dannies said last year’s increase enabled the library to serve more than a half million visitors. For many years the system shrank due to budget cuts.

“That is phenomenal for a city this size to have the library used that much,” Dannies said. “Though the increase this year is for an increase in salary, it’s very important to the librarians, because we want to keep them in the city and keep them doing a good job.”

“Just keep supporting the library the way you have been,” she urged the alders. “It’s a really good place.”

Nearly 30 members of AFSCME Local 3144 showed up Monday night to remind alders that their union, which represents many city employees including those who were performing storm duties Tuesday, have been work-

ing without a contract for at least two years.

Their union is currently in contract negotiations. They said they haven’t seen a tre raise in years because the last negotiated raise went to cover increased medical and pension costs.

They argued that that doesn’t happen to those in executive management.

“We generate revenues that help the city. We ensure compliance with federal and state laws,” Local 3144 Vice President Harold Brooks told alders.

“The list goes on. These are challenging times for New Haven, just as there have been challenging times. We urge

you to remember the important role that these public service folks play in ensuring the well being of virtually every person in the city.”

Another way the city might ensure well-being of citizens and ultimately save money would be by adding 12 lieutenants to the fire department. At least that was the argument Fire Inspector Steven Ortiz posited before alders Monday evening. Ten lieutenant positions were cut from the department at the end of 2014 on the premise that they were not needed to meet operational needs.

Ortiz suggested that by restoring those positions the city could eliminate overtime problems in its middle management ranks.

“I know it looks like a million in costs, but I can show you how it’s only going to $110,000 in actual salary costs,” he said. Except he said he needed a little more time to get the information to alders on paper. The alders told Ortiz to get it on paper because they want to see that math.

Fire Chief John Alston Jr. said he’d also like to see the numbers when Ortiz made a similar presentation to him earlier in the day.

Alston, who wasn’t in attendance Monday, said he wanted to see the earlier study that recommended eliminating the lieutenant positions in the first place. He said he’s keeping an open mind.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

OK Paying More Sales Tax? It Depends

by LUCY GELLMAN

competitive, and more equitable.”

In Massachusetts, the sales tax is currently 6.25 percent. In Rhode Island, it stands 7 percent.

New Haven Mayor Toni Harp endorsed Looney’s bill during an appearance on WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday” program. In a testimony submitted to a hearing last week of the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee, New Haven state legislative liaison Michael Harris called the bill “an important step to diversify how schools, police, and parks are funded.”

“Tens of thousands of workers and

visitors from outside New Haven come to our city and use our streets and buildings and parks and sewers.

A local option sales tax would fund our local government in a way that better reflects those shared costs,” he argued.

At Artist & Craftsman, shopper Rose, who owns a tattoo parlor in Woodbridge with her husband Jim LoPresti, recalled when the state sales tax went up from 6 to 6.35 percent in 2011. She said Monday afternoon that “it felt like a lot” to her at the time, and it still does. If municipalities are allowed to impose an even higher amount, she said, she hopes the extra money goes straight to “things we care about” as taxpayers — like fixing roads and infrastructure, cleaning up public spaces, and homelessness outreach.

“Who wants to pay more taxes?” she said, laughing as she helped her small daughter pick out a colorful animal-shaped mask. “But I’d want to know what [services] it was for.”

She estimated that her purchase two cans of paint and a few packs brushes would be close to $50, or $53.18 at the current sales tax. If that came up to $53.43 instead to help New Haven, she said, she’d deal.

Over at the Dollar Tree across the street on Chapel, shopper Dan Vanson of New Haven said he feels the same way. A musician who works

at B Natural Cafe, he said that he’d need to know more about the municipal services to which that extra .5 percent would go before making any conclusions on the bill. In one hand he held a $2 hairbrush for his dog that would cost $2.13 under the current sales tax. Would he support paying the extra penny if the bill passes, and New Haven embraces that extra .5 percent?

“If it’s going to go to Yale, or the cops, or shit like that, than no—because they don’t really need it,” he said as waited to be rung up. “But if it’s going to go to mental health, yeah.” He’d also support the money support street-cleaning: “I live off of Whalley, so everything’s pretty shitty there.”

Louise Anderson, who was three aisles away perusing Sesame Street stickers for her bible study classes, shook her head no at the prospect of a 0.5 percent incrase. Maybe a few extra dollars and cents don’t sound too bad to middle- and upper-class consumers, she said. But it would hit poor consumers hard, because every penny counts for them.

“When you’re looking at people who are barely surviving, it can be very destructive,” she said. She added that while she might be able to afford a bump in the sales tax, she is looking out for those who can’t.

Another Hillhouse teacher, Burt Saxon, noticed Paca’s budding interest in politics and put him on a debate team. Saxon stoked Paca’s in-

terest in politics, which would lead him to major in political science and dive into political campaigns at Hampton University before returning home and earning a masters in business administration at Southern Connecticut State University.

Now, at 39 years old, Paca is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor in New Haven. Ideas for how to improve public education form one of five main issues sections of a website he produced upon announcing his campaign three weeks ago.

In an interview about his education platform over coffee in Wooster Square Thursday, Paca said those personal experiences helped guide his conclusion that the public schools should involve students more in decision-making, prepare them better for new-economy jobs, and do a better job sharing and ex-

panding “best practices” — that is, ideas that are already working.

“They’re Teaching Us” Like injecting student voices into the adult decision-making process, the way the police did with the young adult board. He praised the recent addition of two student positions to the Board of Education. “A lot of times they’re teaching us more than we’re teaching them,” Paca said.

He proposed forming a millennials commission to add young adults’ views into city policy.

Another idea Paca said he has seen work firsthand: Setting up advisory boards of alumni and local business and government and not-for-profit leaders at individual schools. He serves on one such board, at ESUMS (the Engineering and Science University Magnet School). He has seen how such boards can help schools

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Tracey Rose said she wouldn’t mind paying an extra 25 cents in a proposed new city tax for $50 worth of art supplies — if she knows that it’ll go towards fixing municipal problems.

Picking up paint and brushes at Artist & Craftsman on Chapel Street, Rose weighed in on a state bill that would allow cities like New Haven to create their own sales tax on top of the existing state sales tax.

Proposed by Democratic State Sen. Martin Looney of New Haven, the bill would authorize municipalities to levy a local sales tax of up to 0.5 percent. It would be added to the 6.35 percent sales tax (and be collected by the state, which would in turn send the 0.5 percent portion back to the cities) for a total of 6.85 percent in cities.

At a recent press conference in Hartford, Looney said that the hike from municipalities, were it imposed at its full .5 percent, could bring in up to $214.5 million in local sales tax revenue. Using 2013 estimates, that could mean up to $10.5 million in local sales tax revenue for New Haven, added Looney spokesman Adam Joseph.

Cities can’t enact their own taxes without state permission. Right now

Rose shopping on Chapel: Open to another 25 cents.

the state allows cities to collect only property taxes — which sticks in the craw of communities like New Haven, where the state also orders about half of the property to be tax-exempt. New Haven’s elected officials have sought for years to win state permission to raise revenue from alternative sources.

“We can and must change the legacy colonial property tax system that ties the hands of our towns,” said Looney. “Municipalities have long been asking the state for revenue diversification ... Doing so will help to make our state and its towns both more

Paca: Students Can Help Us Improve Schools

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

In describing his ideas for boosting education in New Haven, mayoral candidate Marcus Paca talked about how two teachers and an adult neighbor once reached a Hillhouse High School student who was struggling with his parents’ divorce and the death of his friends.

That student was Paca himself.

Before coming to Hillhouse in the early 1990s, he said, he had thrived as a student at Edgewood and Sheridan schools. Then his parents’ split threw him. So did the impact of gun violence raging in New Haven at the time. “At least two dozen [students] I knew personally were killed,” he recalled. “It put me on edge.”

His grades dropped. His attitude sagged.

A teacher, Robert Gibson, noticed.

He asked Paca to remain after class.

He asked him what was wrong. They talked through what was happening in his life.

Meanwhile, at home in the Newhallville neighborhood, a neighbor named Jo Ann Pearson noticed Paca walking his dog and invited him in for cookies and ice cream.

Pearson, an alderwoman at the time, connected him to the campaign of Mayor John C. Daniels, Paca recalled. She also helped him land a spot on the Young Adult Board of Police Commissioners, a group formed at the dawn of community policing to involve teens.

Paca met the police chief and participated in discussions about how to make the city safer.

He recalled “how important it was for me that adults listened to my ideas. Young people have good ideas. They can give good advice.”

14

Con’t on page 30

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New Food Cart Rules Advance THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

by THOMAS BREEN NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

The city came one step closer to realizing a new regulatory framework for monitoring New Haven’s food trucks, carts, and stands thanks to a vote following a three-hour public session at City Hall.

Before the vote Thursday night, some vendors told lawmakers they remain concerned about the unintended consequences that these regulations might have on the traffic safety of both their employees and their customers.

The Board of Alders Legislation Committee voted unanimously to approve a proposed ordinance containing the new regulations, which the city has been developing for over two years alongside Yale University, the Town Green Special Services District, and concerned stakeholders. The proposal now advances to the full Board of Alders for a final vote.

The ordinance aims to formalize the city’s oversight of the growing mobile vending industry through a few key provisions: • The creation of four Special Vending Districts, which will carve out legal areas for food vending on Long Wharf, Cedar Street, Sachem Street, and downtown.

• The establishment of specific standards for vendor set up and operations, including requirements for publicly-accessible trash containers and prohibitions against selling food within 100 hundred feet of brick-and-mortar restaurants.

• The updating of the vendor application process and of the vendor annual license fees, requiring $1,000 per year for pushcarts or stands (which can only occupy sidewalks) and $2,500 a year for trucks or trailer carts (which can only occupy parking spaces).

• The hiring of a full-time vending enforcement officer, who will be responsible for enforcing vending regulations in all corners of the city, not just in the Special Vending Districts.

If approved by the full board, the ordinance would go into effect in the Downtown, Cedar Street, and Long Wharf Special Vending Districts on July 1. The same rules would go into effect in the Sachem Street Special Vending District on Aug. 15.

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

Hot dog man Sweeney: “Don’t put dollar up front!”

Alders Sarah Eidelson, Jessica Holmes, Frank Douglass, Adam Marchand at hearing.

Doug Hausladen, Jim Turcio, and Steve Fontana represented different departments from the City of New Haven at Thursday night’s meeting.

Much of the night’s conversation revolved around topics covered in a four-page document that city representatives from the Office of Economic Development (OED) and the Office of Building Inspection & Enforcement (OBIE) submitted in response to outstanding questions from a previous public hearing on the ordinance.

Towards the top of that document were questions about vendor permit

fees. Namely, why does the city set the vendor permit fee at $200? And could the city reduce the vendor permit fee?

“Pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes Section 21-37, the City may set the fee at any dollar up to $200,” the document reads.

According to OBIE, the fees help cover the costs incurred during the processing of vendor permit applications, which includes copying

16

documents, ensuring their validity, completing background checks, and issuing Photo ID badges.

While identifying the price of the permit fee as a revenue matter that would ultimately need to be decided upon by the Board of Alders and the mayor, OED and OPIE offered a concession to vendors concerned about being penalized for working in an industry that can have a high rate of employee turnover.

The city departments said that they would support a policy that would grant vendors one “free” permit application fee per year if they lost an employee within six months of hiring them. That way, vendors would not have to bear the burden of paying the permit fee twice in one year, even if they had to replace an employee soon after hiring them.

“I think it’s important for us to note that there is a cost to the city for making law and order, protecting public health, maintaining the proper flow of traffic, and generally running itself,” Westville Alder Adam Marchand (pictured) said in support of preserving the $200 permit fee, and of the ordinance more broadly.

“I am of course sympathetic to people who own small businesses, who don’t have huge reserves of capital to fall back on when the business is down. We want to make sure that the fees are not arbitrary, capricious, or way out of proportion to the costs that the city has to pay to regulate the activity. But clearly we have this burgeoning sector in our city that has gone pretty much unregulated, or at least under-regulated, and we’re trying to catch up with the situation that’s running ahead of us.”

Committee Chair Jessica Holmes of East Rock and Newhallville Alder Jeanette Morrison agreed, and resolved to formally ask OED and OBIE to put together a report a few months after the regulations go into effect to track any complaints or concerns. The city would then give testimony on that report during a public hearing, and the board would consider changes to the permit fee or to any of the other regulations that prove to be too cumbersome.

“Please, Safety First.”

During the public testimony section of the committee hearing, a handful

of vendors spoke up in opposition to the proposed ordinance. Their concerns were not just financial, though they all did note that the new annual license fee would apply on top of a mandated $280 health department inspection fee in addition to the $200 vendor permit fee.

Rather, most of their concerns were about safety, both for the vendors and for their customers.

“I’ve been selling food down at Long Wharf for 65 years,” said Robert Sweeney (pictured above), who runs a longstanding hot dog van in what would be the Long Wharf Special Vending District. “We’ve had very few accidents in that time, except for the drag racing. But since we had to move to a parking spot on the street three months ago, we’ve had 12 accidents. And it’s not even summer, which is the busy season for us! Money is one thing, but safety is more important than the few extra dollars you’re going to get from having a few extra trucks at Long Wharf. Please, consider the safety first. Don’t put the dollar up front.”

Victor Romero (pictured at left), who has been working for Sweeney for eight years, offered a similar plea. “Lately, we see so many accidents,” he said. “Something is not right. Something needs to be fixed.”

Sympathetic to the Long Wharf vendors’ concerns, Holmes promised to put pressure on the necessary city departments to further work towards ensuring pedestrian safety, even if those regulations fell outside of the purview of the ordinance under consideration.

“I think it’s important that we note that there are a number of issues that came up before us today that warrant further examinations, specifically around safety, how closely together the traffic spaces are at Long Wharf, and whether or not further traffic calming is needed in the streets,” she said. “Given Long Wharf ’s proximity to the interstate exit, it sounds like there’s a lot of traffic calming required.”

“But these issues may be better managed through regulation than via ordinance,” she continued. “It’s not that these concerns aren’t valid. It’s just that this may not be the most appropriate venue in which to address them.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

TURN UP FOR JUSTICE FUNDRAISER PARTY FOR HOLLY TUCKER

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WHERE: PEOPLE CENTER 37 HOWE STREET Mark your calendar and come in your dancing shoes and comfortable clothing because we are going to party until we can’t party no more. A night to bring together friends, family and supporters of Holly on her journey for justice and just “let our hair down” and make memories. Forget all the concerns of today and enjoy food, drink, music and other entertainment. Cash bar. Catering by Sandra’s restaurant and DJ by the host with the most. Photographer on duty. Suggested donation $10. Come early because when the food is gone it’s gone. Pole dancing anyone??? Lol. All welcome. Let’s make this a night to remember.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

An Opera in Jazz: Terrance Blanchard’s “Champion”

By K.P. Williams

Pop, Rock, Jazz, and Classical.

These are all separate genres of music. But what happens when you put two of them together?

You get “opera in jazz” rather than “jazz opera,” according to jazz musician and opera composer Terence Blanchard, who is the former Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance Artistic Director. Blanchard is also a jazz trumpeter from New Orleans who has over 20 albums to his credit, won three Grammy’s and written music for many of Spike Lee’s films.

Blanchard just premiered his first opera, (the opera’s second production run), “Champion,” the story of former Welterweight Boxing Champion Emile Griffith and his life-defining fight with reigning Welterweight Champion Benny “The Kid” Paret.

In March 1962, Griffith and Paret went toe to toe in a fight that

ended with Paret in a coma for ten days, then dying from injuries he sustained during the fight.

In “Champion,” we get inside the mind of a tortured man reliving the fight that forever changed his career, along with his public battle

of being a bisexual man of color in the 60’s. Being a big fan of boxing and hearing about the nature of Griffith and his story, compelled Blanchard to choose “Champion” as his first opera. The line, “I kill a man and most forgive me, I love

a man and many say this makes me an evil person,” famously said

by Griffith in the book, “A Man’s World: The Double Life of Emile Griffith” by Donald McRae, is one of the lines that drew Blanchard to his story.

“Having a boxer or an athlete who has the same struggle as many others throughout different walks of life could bring a compelling concern and light on an issue that many other people still struggle with today,” said Blanchard.

Telling this ambitious story of humanity, tragedy and redemption, through voice and music was new for Blanchard. Even though he’s been a jazz musician for over thirty-six years, working with vocals is a new undertaking.

Blanchard said he doesn’t feel like he’s made the transition from jazz musician to opera composer yet, but he’s been learning a lot from talented and experienced people in that world. However, Blanchard

said the most rewarding part in getting to compose this “opera in jazz” was going from the opera in his mind for two years, to “actually watching it come to life with the actors and the cast.”

Blanchard said that he wants audiences to understand Griffith was a human being just like any other human being and we have the same issues then as we do now.

Blanchard is already working on his next opera based off the memoirs of New York Times writer, Charles M. Blow, entitled, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” Blanchard is sure to weather the waters of opera just like he has jazz.

Blanchard’s Opera “Champion” is being staged by the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center with performances from March 4-18. Be sure to attend if you are in the mood for an exciting story, complimented with some great music and a touch of soulful emotion.

Black Entrepreneur Launches Maximus Box – The First Ever Big and Tall Subscription Service for Men — The Big and Tall market is growing at a 6.5% rate, and the market will be valued at $4 billion by 2022.

This positions Maximus Box as a market leader. — Austin, TX — Maximus Box is the first ever Big and Tall clothing subscription service for men. Its idea is one that has come not too soon and its founder, Wes Riddick, says that “Every big and tall man should have the right to feel confident, comfortable and cash savvy.” It’s month-to-month cancel anytime service that launched in the recent months out of Texas has now grown nationally and is serving customers from coast to coast.

“I had no idea that I was tapping into such a huge market demand, I was simply strapped for time, on a budget and needed to find my size without all of the hassle of returns,” says Riddick.

As a first time entrepreneur and winner of the Pitch Black pitch competition in Austin this winter, this young 29 year old African American husband and father of two decided to put his own savings into bootstrapping a tech company that would bring the best quality and convenience to other big and

tall men like himself. “When I started the company we had some initial failures, during our first soft launch we lost a lot of money, we learned and regrouped and in the fall of 2016 we saw tremendous results,” says Riddick. “The biggest challenge is staying lean, while learning and focusing on a delivering a great experience.”

Founders of tech companies who happen to be African American and are funded makeup less that 1% of the market. However if VC’s are less willing to invest in minority and women based startups that is ok according to Riddick. He believes in growing and proving demand for his product in order to gain leverage. “When investors are ready to meet with us we will make sure we can show the trajectory and expectations for the company and we will have the leverage to walk away if we need to.”

When asked why he felt so passionate about creating a tech company when he has no background in the space, he said, “Life does not come with a manual, everything I have done I have given my 100% and learned along the way. My ability to quickly adapt and be nimble

Wes Reddick, founder of Maximus Box, presenting at the Pitch Black Austin Event that he won.

is one of my keys to success. This is how I became the number one finance director in my region in my other career. I simply don’t accept mediocrity.” In addition to this, he

18

said he wants to leave a great legacy for his children and his community. He believes in giving back and it is one of the core tenants of his company. “I am always looking

for ways to re-invest in my community and as my company grows so will the community around me,” said Riddick.

The Maximus Box (www.maximusbox.com) which retails starting at $69 dollars a month is only one of the first products Riddick plans on innovating. He believes that we are on the cusp of seeing many more minority, black and women entrepreneurs entering the space and Austin, Texas is the perfect place to launch such a company. While there may be slow investment activity in the market he believes that with the surge of many ideas that will materialize into cash flow the investors will not be too far away. His focus is to be laser sharp on his product the experience he delivers to each one of his customers. “The rest should take care of itself,” he adds.

Maximus Box launched in March of 2016 locally has now grown nationwide. Each month, men from all around the country get a new box delivered to their door step with clothes that has been specifically chosen for them, their fit and style.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

Vanessa Bell Calloway: Sexy At 60!

by Aria Ellise, BlackDoctor.org

It’s 2017 and this month, March, actress Vanessa Bell Calloway is turning 60. Can you believe it, 60?! If you were take a look at the sexy Coming To America star, it doesn’t look like she’s aged a bit!

So, now at 60, Calloway wants to start off the month right with a new “This is My Sexy Sixty” campaign focused on celebrating women of all ages.

Since March is also Women’s History Month, the campaign is well-timed, as Calloway invites women to “look your best, feel your best, but most of all … be your best!”

According to the campaign, Calloway “will share her story and invite other women to share their

personal stories, using images and word, of achieving mental, physi-

cal and spiritual wellness.”

In the following years after the

Remembering Jazz Legend Al Jarreau

by Ashley White, BlackDoctor.org Nicknamed the “Acrobat of Scat” for his unique vocal style, Al Jarreau was one of the few performers of his day who successfully bridged pop, jazz and R&B. Jarreau did not begin a full music career until he was thirty, but he released more than 20 albums and won seven Grammy Awards, along with a nomination for the theme song from the ever-popular TV show, Moonlighting. The singer also remained a tireless performer right up until his death.

The news of his death, came just after the seven-time Grammy winner announced his retirement from the entertainment business after hospitalized in Los Angeles for exhaustion, according to the Associated Press.

“He is thankful for his 50 years of traveling the world in ministry through music, and for everyone to share this with him — his faithful audience, the dedicated musicians, and so many others who supported his efforts, read a Twitter post to his fans.

It was unclear what he died from at press time, but Jarreau had fought through respiratory and cardiac issues in recent years.

Alwyn Lopez Jarreau was born

March 12, 1940 in Milwaukee, and he grew up in a musical household.

“My mother was a piano teacher and church organist. My dad was a minister, and a singer,” Jarreau said in a 2012 invterview with All About Jazz. “My brothers were singing quartet music in the living room when I was four and five years old. They were singing … [scatting]…stuff like that, that’s what I wanted to be like. I wanted to be like my brothers, singing this jazzy music.”

His debut album, released in 1976, made an immediate splash

in jazz circles. Mainstream pop success followed in 1981 with the album “Breaking Away,” which hit the Top 10 on the Billboard charts and spawned his biggest hit, the breezy “We’re in This Love Together,” and he was featured on the all-star 1985 song, “We Are the World.”

“I have had the chance to live the artist life, to make my living creating,” said Jarreau. “To be given that ability to create something where there was nothing before, empty space, and now there’s a song.

That’s an amazing gift.”

19

success of 1988’s Coming To America, Calloway appeared in What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), The Inkwell (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), and Daylight (1996). Calloway had several starring roles on television series and movies, include first African American prime time soap opera, Under One Roof (1995). In recent years, she had the recurring roles on Hawthorne and Shameless.

In 2016, she appeared in the film about former First Lady and President Obama’s first date, Southside with You. The eight-time NAACP Image Award nominee currently stars as Lady Ella Johnson in the Bounce TV prime time soap opera, Saints & Sinners. She also recently joined the cast of the LeBron

James-produced, Survivor’s Remorse on STARZ. It doesn’t matter what age she is, when she’s not acting,Vanessa loves to cook in her free time.

“For me, there is nothing sexier, more alluring than an intimate, beautifully set dinner party with good friends,” exclaims Calloway.

“I’ll take my dining room table over a high profile restaurant any day. Cooking my favorite dishes for some of my best friends and engaging them in great conversation is what makes my life special.”

On her blog, Vanessa goes on to talk about just how blessed she is to be in this position in life.

“I don’t feel old. I feel renewed, rejuvenated and fearless. I feel like I still have a good 50 years left to explore new territories.”

“Anyone that is not in my corner as I take my journey into my next 50 years, I wish them well. They however will not be a deterrent nor will they stop me from doing anything that I want to do. As I often say, I don’t care if anyone gets me because I get me! After my dear sweet Tony signs off on whatever I want to do, the hell with everyone else. Quite frankly his opinion is the only one that really matters to me but even he will not define who I am.”

Well, go ‘head Mrs. Calloway!

Here’s to wishing you another beautiful 60 years on this earth!

We love you!

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

Storm Passed In Warmth, In Spades

by THOMAS BREEN

D’Mario Parish balanced his cellphone between his shoulder and his ear as he looked at his new hand of cards. Half of his attention was on the phone conversation, the other half on the game of spades before him. The storm outside seemed far away.

“It’s going well,” said Parish, a volunteer cook at the Trinity Baptist Church homeless shelter, as he smiled and winked at his fellow card players seated around the table.

“We’re in here for the storm, playing cards, staying warm. You know, they’re all trying to cheat me, but you can’t cheat the best.”

“No one’s trying to cheat you,” the group exploded around him, smiling and scoffing and counting the tricks stacked before them to see how close they were to their initial bids. “Get off the phone and play your turn!”

With a flick of the wrist, D’Mario tossed a five of clubs from his hand into the center of the table, and the game resumed.

Such was the scene at noon on Tuesday at one table in the basement warming shelter of the Trinity Baptist Church on State Street.

As the storm outside changed from snow to sleet, 27 of New Haven’s homeless men and women found temporary shelter in the downtown church’s basement, which functions as an overflow shelter for the city’s primary warming center at Bethel AME Church on Goffe Street.

Usually open every night of the week from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., both warming centers stayed open all day and night Tuesday, making sure that New Haven’s downtown homeless population had a warm place to weather the storm.

“We’re not going anywhere,” said Mark Jones, who works for the shelter and was overseeing the kitchen and main resting and recreation area.

“We’ll be open until at least tomorrow morning at 7.”

While some guests warmed themselves with a cup of hot chocolate or wrapped themselves in sleeping bags and tried to catch some rest, Parish led a game of spades at a plastic table not far from the kitchen where he was preparing the night’s meal of soup, rolls, and casserole.

He was joined by four guests: Victor Alvarado, Lateef Stevenson, Lupe Kendrick, and Terry (who asked not to be identified by her last name).

Everyone knew the rules by heart.

THOMAS BREEN PHOTOS Parish: “If someone’s hungry enough to chase their dream, I’m hungry enough to help them.”

Terry dutifully kept score. The game functioned primarily as a way for the group to relax and kill time, to chat with fellow guests and to share their own stories, backgrounds, interests.

And, of course, to sing: along with songs playing over the kitchen radio, or just from memory with a simple boom-bat rhythm pounded by hand on the tabletop.

“I’ve written lots of songs, all based on my own experience,” said Kendrick, who grew up in New Haven, graduated from Hillhouse High School, and is a regular performer at Musical Intervention on Temple Street. “I played the trombone for over 10 years, and started out as a choreographer before switching to be a singer and musician.”

After D’Mario shared some of his own rapping and singing chops, Kendrick jumped into a brief acapella rendition of Lorde’s “Royals” before returning to the game of spades.

“I play the drums and the quads,” Stevenson said beneath his flatbrimmed black baseball cap. “And I went to Co-op [High School]. Got my CNA license, my OSHA credentials.”

“You’ve got to put those to use now,” D’Mario said. “And if you all ever need some help finding work, come to me. If someone’s hungry enough to chase their dream, I’m hungry enough to help them.”

Alvarado spun a spade onto the table

with a laugh and pulled another trick towards his pile.

“I’ve been in New Haven for a little while,” he said. “I lost my mom, lost everything, and have been trying to make it just one day at a time. But this shelter is nice. It’s quiet, and people respect each other here.”

In between plays, D’Mario turned his back to the table and raised his phone in the air. “All right, it’s time for Snapchat,” he declared. “I’ve got to show my fans what’s going on.”

Stevenson and Kendrick laughed as D’Mario showed them his face, mocked up in the photo with rabbit ears and a long tongue, sitting amidst the group of card players.

After the game, D’Mario returned to the kitchen to stir the soup, considering whether or not to accept a challenge from another guest to play Battleship.

“I come here five, six days a week.

Really, whenever they need me,” said Kendrick, who also works as a cook at Hopkins School and as a part-time cook at Quinnipiac University. “I want to show these guys that we all come from somewhere.

I was staying at this shelter just last year. Now that I’m in a place where I can give back, it feels so good to use my talents to help these guys out, to give them a good meal, to show them that they can chase their dreams too.”

20

Con’t from page 14

Paca: Students Can Help Us Improve Schools raise money and connect adults with students, he said. He proposed replicating those boards at schools across town.

Paca’s platform calls for convening “best practices roundtables” for educators to discuss successful ideas, he said.

“Dual language” curricula are one such success, he argued. Three schools — John C. Daniels, Columbus, and Clinton Avenue — operate on such curricula. Students attend classes conducted completely in Spanish one week, in English the next. Paca said he would look to incorporate that approach in all K-8 schools in the system. He would stick with Spanish as the second language, given the city’s significant Spanish-speaking population.

Kids learn languages best when they start young, he noted. He also said bilingual proficiency gives graduates better job prospects.

Speaking of job readiness, he also vowed to develop more tech-training courses in schools throughout the system, including at the middle school level. The Harp administration launched an afternoon program for “Youth Stat” students called Career Pathways TECH Collaborative. Paca argued that such courses — in carpentry, robotics, coding — should be available to all students.

He said he saw firsthand in a previous job, at Bridgeport’s The Workforce, Inc., that young people had trouble landing good jobs because they lacked tech training.

Paca returned to his experience at Hillhouse to call for a focus on improving guidance counseling.

“When I went to Hillhouse, I had the same guidance counselor from ninth to 12th grades,” he said. In the past year students have complained about running through a series of counselors over four years there, and overall not receiving the kind of college prep guidance their peers receive, say, in the suburbs.

(Read more about that here.) Paca said students tell him they search the internet to try to find the college information they need.

“Why was it a priority back then, and it’s not a priority now?” he asked of guidance counseling.

Harp: Set Priorities Asked for her response to Paca’s education platform, Harp said she too favors dual language schools, tech ed, advisory councils, and better guidance counseling. She argued that the city doesn’t have enough

money or enough major institutions to spread those ideas to every school. “You have to pick and choose where you are going to get the best outcomes,” she argued — dual-language curricula in schools with more Spanish speakers, for instance, advisory councils at schools most in need of turnarounds. Harp said that she would focus more on basic skills that underpin tech work — math and reading — through middle school. She said she plans to release a report in the next week or two from her reading commission containing ideas for improvements in that area.

In general, Paca said, he would seek to build a more collaborative relationship on educational issues than he said Mayor Toni Harp has had with the Boards of Education and Alders. The administration has clashed with the alders over several education issues over the past year and a half. Harp served a year as president of the ed board, saying she wanted to inject a sense of urgency into the quest to raise test scores and boost reading, including launching a Saturday reading academy. Paca called that decision a mistake and said he would not seek to serve as ed board president: “The mayor has enough on his or her plate.”

The Harp administration has come under criticism for working with the Rev. Boise Kimber to create a new all-boys charter school. Paca was asked his position on the proposed school. “We don’t know enough about his school proposal to give an opinion,” he responded. “But since the mayor is backing it, she should explain more on why she supports it so folks can make an informed decision.”

Harp responded that an all-boys schools would offer another option to students who need it. “Young men who are disengaged and really need to focus on education without distractions that some say having both genders creates,” she said.

“It really focuses on developing for male students a sense of pride and a sense of brotherhood and community that helps those who are most disengaged stay engaged in education.”

She said an all-girls school would also probably be in the offing. New York’s Eagle Academy, which would help New Haven’s version get started, has proved the model works, she argued.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

3rd annual

YOUTH SUMMIT

SUPPORT OUR CAUSE!

WHEN

Please help us make this an enjoyable and memorable event for both our veterans and youth.

Thursday, March 16th 2017 Friday, March 17th 2017 10:00am – 4:00pm both days WHERE

Southern Connecticut State University The Veterans Empowering Teens through Support (V.E.T.T.S. TM) Mentoring Program is hosting a 2-day summit open to ALL High School Students. The goal of this special retreat is to support youth in planning their future. Students will explore different career paths, college opportunities, and vocational tracks. *Meals will be provided *We are in the process of arranging transportation

Donations can be made at our GoFundMe page: gofundme.com/vettsyouth-summit2017 Thank you!

Parents and Guardians can Register ONLINE now at: http://tinyurl.com/VETTS-Summit-2017

FEATURING • College Info Sessions • Campus Tours • Career Fair • Resiliency & Empowerment Workshops• Team Building Activities • Fun Prizes • Guest Speakers

OPEN HOUSE GATEWAY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

APRIL 1, 2017

Summer 2017 Classes Begin

Session I: Session II: Session III:

May 31 - June 16 May 31 - June 29 July 5 - August 3

10:00 AM TO 2:00 PM CAMPUS TOURS. MEET FACULTY. FREE ADVISING.

Fall & Summer Registration Starts April 10, 2017 Fall classes begin August 29th

GATEWAYCT.EDU • (203) 285-2010 • 20 CHURCH STREET, NEW HAVEN, CT 21

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

T-Boz: “Doctors Said I Wouldn’t Live Past My 30’s & Never Have Kids”

by Morgan Curley, BlackDoctor.org

Tionne Watkins, better known as T-Boz of the legendary, multi-platinum girl group TLC, along with the remaining member, Ronzonda “Chilli” Thomas, revealed that the group is putting the finishing touches on their fifth and final studio album.

Back in 2015, fans of the iconic girl group responded to a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for their final album, with even the likes of superstar singer, Katy Perry, backing it, helping the two surviving members of TLC raise $150,000 in three days.

Now, two years and over $430,000 later, that album has officially returned to the spotlight, with T-Boz and Chilli’s management team finally confirming it’ll be released this summer.

As this chapter of her life comes to a close, we reflect on T-Boz health condition and there was a possibility she wouldn’t even be here to tell the story.

In early 2010, T-boz she revealed she had secretly suffered from complications related to a brain tumor in addition to battling sickle cell anemia.

The 46-year-old star mother of one, revealed that she has been waging a secret battle against a brain tumor that was diagnosed in 2006, saying that she underwent a seven-hour surgical procedure that same year, during which doctors peeled the tumor from her brain stem by making a cut behind her ear.

She says she was determined to not make her struggle known to the public.

“I didn’t want pity. I was there to help sick children,” T-Boz says. “Because people are often shocked to hear news like that, I kept it under wraps until now so that I can focus on service, and on raising money for the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia. I was not interested in gaining pity for myself.”

While the surgery was successful, it left T-Boz with one side effect: poor balance. In her recovery, she educated others on sickle cell anemia while working on new music with a positive message.

“Doctors, they didn’t give me a happy ending,” T-Boz said,

reflecting on her brain tumor and her sickle cell anemia. “‘You won’t live past 30, you’ll be disabled your whole life. You’ll never have kids.

I was looking around the room like, ‘I don’t know who he’s talking to cause that’s not my story.”

Apparently, T-Boz was right. Just take a look at beautiful daughter, Chase.

Tumors that originate within brain tissue are known as primary brain tumors.

Primary brain tumors are classified by the type of tissue in which they arise. The most common brain tumors are gliomas, which begin in 22

the glial (supportive) tissue.

There are several types of gliomas, including the following: Astrocytomas arise from small, star-shaped cells called astrocytes. They may grow anywhere in the brain or spinal cord. In adults, astrocytomas most often arise in the cerebrum. In children, they occur in the brain stem, the cerebrum, and the cerebellum. A grade III astrocytoma is sometimes called anaplastic astrocytoma. A grade IV astrocytoma is usually called glioblastoma multiforme.

Oligodendrogliomas arise in the cells that produce

myelin, the fatty covering that protects nerves. These tumors usually arise in the cerebrum. They grow slowly and usually do not spread into surrounding brain tissue.

Ependymomas usually develop in the lining of the ventricles. They may also occur in the spinal cord. Although these tumors can develop at any age, they are most common in childhood and adolescence.

T-Boz is currently back in the studio and touring with bandmate Chili and Lil Mama.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

Gabourey Sidibe Reveals True Inspiration Behind Her Secret

Weight Loss Surgery & New Memoir

by Gwendolyn Harris, Black Doctor.org

Gabourey Sidibe is embracing a new, slimmer look, but hasn’t lost any of the big and bold confidence that’s become her signature. The Oscar-nominated actress, currently featured on Fox’s Empire, recently spoke for the first time about the weight loss surgery she underwent last year to PEOPLE magazine.

“The surgery wasn’t the easy way out,” Sidibe told PEOPLE in the exclusive interview. “I wasn’t cheating by getting it done. I wouldn’t have been able to lose as much as I’ve lost without it.”

Loss is something that inspired her decision to get laproscopic bariatric surgery in May 2016, but it wasn’t just about losing pounds.

After she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, along with a diagnosis for her older brother Ahmed, Sidibe shared that, “I truly didn’t want to worry about all the effects that go along with diabetes. I genuinely [would] worry all the time about losing my toes.”

Details of her weight loss journey and the struggles along the way – including experiences with bulimia, anxiety and depression – are recounted in her upcoming memoir, This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare.

In the book, Sidibe writes, “My surgeon said they’d cut my stomach in half. This would limit my hunger and capacity to eat. My brain chemistry would change and I’d want to eat healthier. I’ll take it!

My lifelong relationship with food had to change.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 29 million people living in the United States has diabetes. Over 90 percent of these individuals has type 2 diabetes which is closely associated with overweight and obesity.

In addition to lifestyle changes like diet and exercise, The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery says surgery can improve type 2 diabetes in 90 percent of patients and cause remission (a state in which all signs and symptoms of diabetes are gone) of type 2 diabetes in 78 percent of them.

“Metabolic surgery is playing a more prominent role in diabetes management because of emerging data showing that surgery can be superior to medical therapy in controlling diabetes,” says Eduardo Grunvald, MD, Program Director, UC San Diego Weight Management Program, the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at UC San Diego Health.

Less than a year after the surgery, Sidibe is still losing weight and loving life – and her body – even more. “It has taken me years to realize that what I was born with is all beautiful,” she writes in the memoir. “I did not get this surgery to be beautiful.

I did it so I can walk around comfortably in heels. I want to do a cartwheel. I want not to be in pain every time I walk up a flight of stairs.”

23

HBCUs Join Forces for $1M Black Male Teacher Training Initiative

by HBCUDigest.com

Five public and private historically black colleges and universities will work to recruit and train black males to serve as secondary teachers in underserved cities and towns, thanks in part to a threeyear, $1.5 million grant awarded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, which helped to organize the training consortium.

Southern University, Tuskegee University, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Alcorn State University and Claflin University are the lead institutions in Project Pipeline Repair: Restoring Minority Male Participation and Persistence in Educator Preparation Programs (Project PR). The program will support academic development, mentoring, and skill training for black males beginning in their junior year of high school, to foster interest and talent in secondary teaching career paths.

Officials say the program will work to eliminate social and economic barriers which limit college entry and completion and contribute to dismal statistics of underrepresentation of black men in teaching. According to SHEEO press release, only two percent of all secondary teachers in public school systems are black men.

The partnership is the second

major secondary education initiative involving historically black colleges and universities in the last six months. In October, Virginia State University and Albany State University were announced as part of a $47 million national initiative to help in training principals in underresourced areas.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

Help Wanted:

Immediate opening for construction laborer for Heavy and Highway Construction. Please call PJF Construction Corp.@ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F Help Wanted: Immediate opening for Dump Truck Driver for Heavy and Highway Construction. CDL A license and clean driving record required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F. Resident Services & Administration Assistant The Housing Authority of the Town of Westport Minimum Salary: $42,500 annual Application DEADLINE is MARCH 24, 2017 General Description of Work:

The Resident Services & Administration Assistant is a key Westport Housing Authority (WHA) staff position that insures residents’ services are the Authority’s first priority. In addition, the Resident Services & Administration Assistant is responsible for initial and ongoing engagement of residents and related administrative duties. The Resident Services & Administration Assistant is also responsible for assisting the Director of Programs and Resident Services in the administration, monitoring, and oversight of resident files and records; applicants’ eligibility determinations; waiting list inquiries; and other tasks required insuring 100% occupancy at the WHA and its affiliates’ housing properties. A full job description and employment application is available at www.westportct.gov or by calling 203-227-4672 x 12. Applications must be postmarked on or before March 24, 2017 to be considered and the WHA reserves the right to be begin interviewing candidates prior to the application deadline.

Employment is contingent upon the successful completion of: (1) a background check, (2) a physical examination, including drug screening, and (3) a 90-day probationary period.

Applications & job descriptions are available at the Westport Housing Authority’s office located at 5 Canal Street, Westport, CT 06880, Monday-Friday, 11 A.M. to 4 P.M, or downloaded from the website listed above. To be considered for this position, the applicant must complete the job application and attached a Resume which should be mailed to the address above. Fax, email or hand delivered applications will not be accepted. Minority and Bilingual applicants are encouraged to apply. The Housing Authority of the Town of Westport is EOE, M/F/D employer.

INVITATION TO BID Viking Construction, Inc. is soliciting interested Connecticut vendors and subcontractors for renovation of existing buildings for the Lawnhill Terrace Phase 2 project located on Custer Street, Stamford, CT. This projects consists of 55,500 SF residential renovation of 8 buildings providing 60 residential units. The renovation will take place over an 11 month duration commencing 2nd Quarter 2017 and the work will include but not be limited to: Div 1 Cleaning, Temporary Facilities; Div 2 Demolition and Abatement, Sitework, Paving, Utilities, Landscaping, Fence; Div 3 Site Concrete for walks and ramps; Div 4 Masonry cleaning; Div 5 Exterior railings; Div 6 Rough Carpentry, Finish carpentry, wood stairs and railings; Div 7 Insulation, Siding, Exterior Trim, Shingle Roofing; Div 8 Doors, Hardware, Windows; Div 9 Drywall, Resilient Flooring, Paint; Div 10 Signs, Toilet Accessories; Div 11 Appliances; Div 12 Residential Kitchen & Bath Casework and Plastic Laminate tops, Simulated Stone countertops, Window Treatment; Div 15 HVAC, Plumbing; Div 16 Electrical.

This project is subject to the CT small contractor set-aside program administered through CHRO (25% SBE/6.25% MBE) as well as HUD Section 3 Business and Hiring requirements.

Viking Construction encourages the participation of all SBE/MBEs currently certified with Connecticut DAS Supplier Diversity program as well as any HUD Section 3 businesses.

All interested companies who have not already received a direct invitation by Viking Construction, Inc. may request it and shall submit their complete company information, qualifications, and bonding capacity on or before 3/3/2017 by Noon via fax 203-4062167 or email: estimating@vikingconstruction.net. All subcontractor/vendor bids are due

by March 14, 2017 at Noon to Viking Construction, Inc via fax 203-406-2167 or email: estimating@vikingconstruction.net Viking Construction, Inc. is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

CDL CLASS A TRACTOR TRAILER DRIVER NEEDED. F/T SEND RESUME: GWF@SNET.NET OR CALL 860-274-9668 Thank you, Susan

NOTICE OF INVITATION FOR BID HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF DANBURY Roofing Project/Fairfield Ridge IFB No. B17002

CONTACT PERSON HOW TO OBTAIN THE IFB DOCUMENTS:

BID SUBMITTAL RETURN PRE-BID WALK THROUGH BID SUBMITTAL DEADLINE/BID OPENING

Ms. Devin Marra, Director of Procurement Telephone: 203-744-2500 x141 E-Mail: dmarra@hacdct.org Contact Ms. Devin Marra, via phone or email.

Housing Authority of the City of Danbury 2 Mill Ridge Rd, Danbury, CT 06811 Envelope Must be Marked: IFB No. B17002 Roofing Project/Fairfield Ridge Housing Authority of the City of Danbury 13-15 Fairfield Ridge, Danbury, CT 06811 March 15, 2017 at 10:00am March 21, 2017 at 9:00am

[Minority- and/or women-owned businesses are encouraged to respond]

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

TOWN CLERK ASSISTANT TOWN CLERK - Assists in the administration and supervision of the

Town Clerks Office. Supervises clerical workers and others assigned. Position requires H.S. graduation or GED and 6 yrs. experience office work of which one (1) year involved supervision.

College level training in business or public administration or related field may be substituted for work experience on the basis of one (1) year of college for one (1) year of work experience up to four (4) years. Must possess and maintain State of Connecticut certification as a Municipal Clerk within three (3) years of hire. Salary: $23.52 to $28.48 hourly, plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. The closing date will be that date the 75th application form/resume is received, or March 15, 2017, whichever occurs first. EOE

New Reach Inc., with its Managing Agent DeMarco Management Corporation are pleased

to announce that applications are being accepted March 15, 2017 through April 28, 2017 for the Geller Commons Apartments located at 135-145 Sanford St., Hamden, CT. We have spacious one-bedroom units. Amenities include all new appliances, handicap accessible units, heat and hot water is included. Geller Commons is a smoke free community. Certain program and income limit restrictions apply. Applications are available at DeMarco Management Corporation, 117 Murphy Rd, Hartford, CT 06114 or you can request an application either by phone (860)951-9411 email at: compliance@demarcomc.com or by AT&T relay service by dialing 711. All applications must be returned to DeMarco Management by midnight on April 28, 2017. **APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AT THE PROPERTY** Project Financed by Connection Housing Finance Authority Equal Housing Opportunities

New Reach Inc., con su Agente Gerente DeMarco Management Corporation, se complace en anunciar que las solicitudes serán aceptadas entre el 15 de marzo de 2017 y el 28 de abril de 2017 para los Geller Commons Apartments ubicados en 135-145 Sanford St., Hamden, CT. Tenemos amplias unidades de un dormitorio. Las comodidades incluyen todos los electrodomésticos nuevos, unidades accesibles para discapacitados, caliente y agua caliente está incluido.

Geller Commons es una comunidad libre de humo. Ciertas restricciones de límites de ingresos y programas se aplican. Las solicitudes están disponibles en DeMarco Management Corporación, 117 Murphy Rd, Hartford, CT 06114 o al (866) 951-9411 correo electrónico: compliance@demarcomc.como por servicio de retransmisión AT & T marcando 711. Todas las solicitudes deben devolverse a DeMarco Manejo a medianoche del 28 de abril de 2017. ** APLICACIONES NO SERÁN ACEPTADAS EN LA PROPIEDAD ** Projecto de Finanzas por CHFA Igualdad de Oportunidades de Vivienda

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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 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

Request for Specialty Crop Block Grant Concept Proposals The Connecticut Department of Agriculture is seeking concept proposal for projects that solely enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. Specialty crops are defined by the USDA as fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, maple syrup, honey, horticulture, and nursery crops.

Projects must impact and produce measurable outcomes for the specialty crop industry and/or the public. Projects cannot begin until after January 1, 2018, and must be completed

by September 29, 2020. The maximum award is $75,000.

More info and complete application guidelines are available at www.CTGrown.gov/grants, or by contacting Jaime Smith at 860-713-2559 or jaime.smith@ct.gov.

Concept proposals are due to the Connecticut Department of Agriculture by 4:00 p.m. on March 29, 2017.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

POLICE OFFICER Competitive examinations will be held for the position of Police Officer in the Guilford, Hamden, North Haven, Orange, Seymour, Torrington and West Haven Police Departments.

Initial examination phases will be physical performance, written, and oral. Candidates may apply online at www. policeapp.com. Application deadline is March 8, 2017.

ALL DEPARTMENTS PARTICIPATING IN THIS RECRUITMENT DRIVE

ARE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYERS.

The Glendower Group, Inc Request for Qualifications

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AT RISK FOR RENTAL ASSISTANCE DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM PORTFOLIO- Group III The Glendower Group, Inc an affiliate of Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Construction Manager at Risk for Rental Assistance Demonstration Program Portfolio.. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at 3:00 PM, EST.

ACCOUNT CLERK

El Sr. Housing de St. Luke’s, con su Agente Gerente DeMarco Management Corp., se complace en anunciar que las solicitudes serán aceptadas entre el 29 de marzo de 2017 y el 3 de mayo de 2017 para el Sr. Vivienda de St. Luke’s ubicado en 120 Goff St., New Haven, CONNECTICUT. Tenemos unidades espaciosas de un dormitorio. Las comodidades incluyen todos los electrodomésticos nuevos, unidades accesibles para discapacitados y todos los servicios públicos están incluidos.

Se aplican restricciones de límite de ingresos. Las solicitudes están disponibles en DeMarco Management Corp., 117 Murphy Rd, Hartford, CT 06114 o al (866) 951-9411 correo electrónico en: compliance@demarcomc.com o por servicio de retransmisión AT & T marcando 711. Todas las solicitudes deben devolverse a DeMarco Manejo a medianoche del 3 de mayo de 2017. ** APLICACIONES SE ACEPTARÁN EN LA PROPIEDAD EL JUEVES DE 12-3: 30 PM. Funding is provided by Housing and Urban Development Igualdad de Oportunidades

Performs a wide variety of accounting clerk duties for a busy municipal government office. The position requires 4 years of related work experience and a H.S. or business School. $22.23 to $26.99 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/ resume is received, or March 22, 2017, whichever occurs first. EOE

CDL CLASS A TRACTOR TRAILER DRIVER NEEDED. F/T SEND RESUME: GWF@SNET.NET OR CALL 860-274-9668 Thank you, Susan

Elm City Communities Request for Proposals Energy Consultant Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Energy Consultant. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems. com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 9:00AM

THE COVENTRY HOUSING AUTHORITY St. Luke’s Sr. Housing, with its Managing Agent DeMarco Management Corporation are pleased to announce that applications are being accepted March 29, 2017 through May 3, 2017 for the St. Luke’s Sr. Housing located at 120 Goffee St., New Haven, CT. We have spacious one-bedroom units. Amenities include all new appliances, handicap accessible units and all utilities are included.

Income limit restrictions apply. Applications are available at DeMarco Management Corporation, 117 Murphy Rd, Hartford, CT 06114 or you can request an application either by phone (860)951-9411 email at: compliance@demarcomc.com or by AT&T relay service by dialing 711. All applications must be returned to DeMarco Management by midnight on May 3, 2017.

**APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED AT THE PROPERTY ON THURSDAYS FROM 12-3:30 PM. Funding is provided by Housing and Urban Development Equal Housing Opportunities

Pre-applications for waiting list at Orchard Hill Estates I & II Housing Complex will be accepted until June 30, 2017. To qualify, you must be at least 62 years old or disabled by Social Security. Current income limits are determined by the Office of Housing and Urban Development. Interested parties may pick up an application online at coventryct.org, or at 1630 Main St., Coventry, CT 06238 or have one mailed by calling 860-742-5518.

Elementary Café Manager

10 months per year – 20 hours per week The Town of Wallingford Board of Education Food Service Department is seeking a skilled individual to coordinate and manage the activities of the other foodservice employees within the facility. Applicants must have a high school degree or equivalent. Ability to read, write, and speak English.

Individuals must have experience in food service with school food service experience preferred. Supervisory experience also preferred. Special Requirement: Must possess sanitation certification from an approved Dept. of Education source. Hourly Rate of $16.41 per hour plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Fax #: (203) 294-2084.

Closing date will be March 1, 2017 or the date the 50th application is received, whichever occurs first. EOE.

Town of Bloomfield

Assistant Director of Public Works Salary $74,337 - $114,743 For details and how to apply, go to www.bloomfieldct.org Pre-employment drug testing required AA/EOE

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport

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

Invitation for Bid (IFB) Trumbull Gardens – Building 10 & 11 Roof Replacement Solicitation Number: 075-PD-17-S The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is requesting sealed bids for the replacement of roofs at Trumbull Gardens building 10 & 11. A complete set of the plans and technical specifications will be available on February 15, 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 March 1, 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 March 10, 2017 @ 2:00 p.m. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www. parkcitycommunities.org. All bids must be received by mailed or hand delivered by March 21, 2017 @ 2:00 PM, to Ms. Caroline Sanchez, Contract Specialist, 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604, at which time and place all bids will be publicly opened and read aloud. No bids will be accepted after the designated time.

CONTRACTOR OPPORTUNITY - BRIDGEPORT

Construction Resources, Inc., an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, seeks certified MBE/WBE/SBE Subcontractors and/or suppliers and local business enterprises to bid applicable sections of work/equipment/supplies for the following construction project: Project known as South End Commons - Demolition of existing properties and new construction of eight (8) residential two-family dwellings and site improvements located on Columbia Street and Johnson Street in Bridgeport, CT. Bid Date and Time: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 by 12:00 noon. Electronic Plans and specifications can be obtained at no charge by contacting Mark Rubins at Construction Resources Farmington office at (860) 678-0663 or by email to mark@corebuilds.com.

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

Responsible for leadership, management & maintenance of plant infrastructure and all related/associated equipment.

5 plus years supervisory experience. Email: Info@redtechllc.com, Fax: 860-218-2433, 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

Facilities Manager – Portland, CT:

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

RED Technologies, LLC is An EOE.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

27

THE INNER-CITY NEWS March 15, 2017 - March 21, 2017

Black-ish available on XFINITY TV app.

5 excitable cousins. 3 night sleepover.

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Offer ends 3/19/17. New residental customers only. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. Requires subscription to Starter XF Triple Play with Digital Starter TV, Performance Pro Internet and XFINITY Voice Unlimited services. Early termination fee applies if all XFINITY services are cancelled during the agreement term. Equipment, installation, taxes and fees, including regulatory recovery fees, Broadcast TV Fee (up to $7.00/ mo.), Regional Sports Network Fee (up to $5.00/mo.) and other applicable charges extra and subject to change during and after the promo. After promo, or if any service is cancelled or downgraded, regular charges apply (subject to change). Service limited to a single outlet. May not be combined with other offers. TV: Limited Basic service subscription required to receive other levels of service. XFINITY On Demand selections subject to charge indicated at time of purchase. Internet: Actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed. Money-Back guarantee applies to one month’s recurring service charge and standard installation charges up to $500. Voice: $29.95 activation fee applies. If there is a power outage or network issue, calling, including calls to 911, may be unavailable. Two-year term agreement required with prepaid card offers. Cards issued by MetaBank,® pursuant to a license from Visa® U.S.A. Inc. Cards will not have cash access and can be used everywhere Visa® debit cards are accepted. Money-back guarantee applies to one month’s recurring service charge and standard installation charges up to $500. © 2017 Comcast. All rights reserved. EMPIRE TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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3/2/17 6:53 PM