NEW HAVEN NEWS

THEINNER-CITY INNER-CITY NEWSNEWS OctoberJuly 25, 27, 2017 - October 31, 2016 - August 02,2017 2016

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Calls for “Full-Scale” Boycott of BMW Financial Justice aSr. Key Focus at 2016 NAACP Convention New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS

Volume 27 . No. 2253 Volume 21 No. 2194

Candidates Diverge On Judge’s Role

“DMC” Color Struck?

BZA Approves Dixwell Arts Center

Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime” LEAP Halloween Party Set For Fun, Fright

Snow in July?

Defeats 4-Term Union Prez FOLLOW USChallenger ON 1

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

Ebola and Mud Slide Victims to receive Christmas Gifts from Freetown-New Haven Sister Cities Program

Aminata Conteh, Bintou Kamara and Althea Norcott, members of Freetown-New Haven Sister Cities Program, prepare a shipment of book bags, stuffed animals, notebooks, pencils, crayons and activity books to be sent to orphans in Ola During Children’s Hospital Freetown, Sierra Leone.

These are children who were orphaned by the Ebola Crisis and the recent mud slide that took over a thousand lives.

Aminata who is from Freetown, Sierra Leone will travel home to play Santa Claus to the children in December. She will also cook a delicious traditional meal of joloff rice, etc. for them and have her “Elf” friends help serve food and pass out gift bags. Be on the lookout for pictures from Freetown. !!

IF JeNTRI DE NA HeVIN, DeN GO SABI AM PAN DI SIKMAN IN FES (Kono) If there are riches in Heaven, you will know it by the sick person’s face.

There are so many organizations to thank for the success of this project: Easter Seals Goodwill, Staples, New Haven Chapter of Links, Inc., Tau Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Immanuel Baptist Clothes Closet, New Haven Reads, and several individual donors.

For more information on ACES schools, programs and services, please visit our website.

(203) 498-6800 | www.aces.org 2

Neighbors Press Developer On Family $

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

Should a Family Dollar make upper Whalley Avenue its home a prospect some neighbors have opposed the building it moves into will get a facelift that includes masonry repair, a paint job and a redone façade, landscaping and a repaved parking lot.

So a developer, who seeks to purchase the former home of CVS on upper Whalley, told neighbors at a Westville/ West Hills management team meeting.

“We’re going to redo the front façade so that it doesn’t look like a 1985 CVS, which is what it is today,” promised Daniel Plotkin, of Northeast Retail.

“When we’re done it will be a significantly improved property.”

“We’re aware that the tenant we are proposing for this property, Family Dollar Stores, is not everybody’s favorite,” he said. “Some of you may feel it’s an inappropriate use, there’s too many of them, the two that we have are not well operated, etc. I understand that, and I’m sympathetic to it. I confront this kind of resistance often and we do the best we can to mitigate it and make the projects the best that we can make them.”

The 9,000 square foot building at 1168 Whalley Ave went vacant after CVS moved into a new store a block south of its old location. If Plotkin succeeds in moving in a Family Dollar, the old property will be worth more money and taxed at a higher rate because of improvements, he said.

“And it will provide a store that the community is going to use whether many of us like it,” he said. “Every

Family Dollar that opens does a lot of business. And Family Dollar goes to great lengths to understand that where they decide to put a store that there are sufficient customers there to shop in it. And in our experience with Family Dollar, we’ve never seen them close one because it didn’t do well.”

Attendees at the meeting last Wednesday night asked whether Family Dollar is prepared to be a better neighbor than it has been in other parts of the city where stores are cramped and dirty. Not that neighbors had warmed to the idea of a Family Dollar, which Plotkin went to great lengths to describe as the only option for the vacant storefront.

“Is there a way to get a representative of your tenant here to explain to us how this store will be managed better and differently than they have been managed in New Haven?” one neighbor asked Wednesday. Plotkin said he’d certainly try.

In a previous meeting, neighbors decried the news that a Family Dollar might come to the neighborhood.

Some snubbed the idea because of the retailer’s reputation in the city. Others expressed hope that the redevelopment and rehabilitation of businesses in the corridor could attract a higherend occupant rather than another discount retailer.

Plotkin said the nature of retail has changed dramatically in recent years, with mid-range stores and independent drug stores being bought out or simply disappearing in part because of the internet. He said that leaves high-end retailers who want to be in tony Fairfield County communities like Darien and Greenwich. Discount retailers like Family Dollar want to be in urban environments like New Haven where incomes are not as high,he said. (City officials for years pressed the owner of the building at Church and Chapel downtown to avoid renting to a discount store, in hopes that an upscale retailer would move in instead. That never happened, and eventually the owner in 2014 rented to a Dollar Tree, which has remained in business.)

Plotkin said Northeast Retail, which is based in Windsor, has built buildings and owned developments in Hartford, Bridgeport, Norwich, and Springfield. Family Dollar can pay the type of rent that will allow Northeast Retail the capital to buy the building at 1168 Whalley Ave. and make it viable again, he said.

Plotkin said the Whalley Avenue building is in a bit of a tough spot in

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

Nappier, Malloy Offer Lawmakers Some Caution On Budget

by Christine Stuart

by PAUL BASS

New Haven Independent

CT. Junkie News

HARTFORD, CT — As they wait for legislative leaders to finish drafting a bipartisan budget proposal, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and State Treasurer Denise Nappier are issuing some words of caution.

On Saturday, Nappier warned that the state may not have the cash to pay its bills if the state spends more on capital projects than it can raise through bond sales. She said if that happens then the state would need to cover those capital project costs with operating cash.

“This would drain cash resources, and could require external borrowing,” Nappier said. “Moreover, while my office is responsible for funding state obligations, we don’t control expenditures. Therefore, any effective cap on bond-funded capital expenditures should place the responsibility for enforcing the cap on the governor, the Office of Policy and Management, and agencies making the expenditures.”

Legislative leaders said last week they’ve reached a tentative budget agreement that includes both a spending and bonding cap. However, they have yet to release the language defining how they accomplish both caps.

Nappier also expressed concern about whether any type of cap would limit funding to state pension plans. Over the past several years, the state has been making the actuarially required contribution, but in the past it hasn’t always made that payment, which has led to Connecticut’s state employee pension ranking among the worst funded in the nation.

While the state is still catching up with the unfunded portion of the funds, “we still have a considerable way to go,” Nappier said. “Let’s not resort to gimmicks that slow our progress.”

She also warned that pushing any part of the teacher’s retirement system contributions into the future may not adhere to the bond covenant adopted in 2008 in conjunction with the sale of pension obligation bonds. She said altering the state’s require contribution should not occur without a formal legal analysis.

Lastly, Nappier said any plan to deposit increased employee pension contributions by teachers into the General Fund instead of directly into the Teachers’ Retirement Fund could result in significant tax liability for teachers. It would also jeopardize the tax-exempt status of the fund.

The Republican budget, which Malloy vetoed at the end of September, would have funneled the increased contribution to the General Fund, but House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, has said that was a drafting error and that the

Candidates Diverge On Judge’s Role

CTNEWSJUNKIE FILE PHOTO

State Treasurer Denise Nappier

intention was always to have it go to the teacher’s pension fund.

The Connecticut Education Association is calling it a “teacher tax.”

Legislative leaders said the new bipartisan budget will require teachers to contribute 1 percent more to their pensions.

Teachers, who don’t receive Social Security, currently pay 6 percent.

Meanwhile, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes said in his monthly letter to state Comptroller Kevin Lembo that they may have revise their executive order if there’s not a budget in place over the next few weeks.

The state is currently running a $93.9 million deficit for fiscal year 2018.

While they plan to offset the deficit with $94.5 million remaining unspent in the Municipal Revenue Sharing Account, they warned revenues may be falling below projections.

“The most significant area of concern is in the Sales and Use Tax, which is growing at approximately 1.5 percent, a level which would underperform the May 1st consensus estimate by approximately $45 million,” Barnes wrote. “This weakness is largely offset by trends in other areas, including Inheritance and Estate tax receipts which are outperforming targets by $15 million; Miscellaneous revenue due to timing of receipt of a $14.1 million settlement; and Refunds of Payments for escheated property that are running below expectations by $10 million.”

Barnes said they may also revise the executive order to account for the savings from the state employees labor contract.

“If a budget for the FY 2018 and FY 2019 biennium is not completed soon, we anticipate issuing another revision to the Executive Order Resource Allocation Plan,” Barnes said.

Depending who wins a contested citywide election, a recovering crack addict will face either a “judge” or a “judge/social worker” in her quest to regain custody of her children.

Clifton Graves Jr. met the recovering addict in Scantlebury Park.

“Listen,” the young woman told Graves. “I was a former crack addict.

Years ago probate court took my child away. I was just unfit to be a parent. I turned my life around. I’ve gone to rehab. Now I want to go back to probate court and reinstate my parental rights.”

Graves met her as he campaigned to become the judge that woman and others in a similar position would have to convince on their day in court. Graves is the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 7 election for probate judge, a position that’s becoming vacant for the first time in 32 years upon the retirement of Jack Keyes. Graves faces Republican candidate Melissa Papantones.

The winner will serve out the last year of Keyes’s four-year term. The job pays $125,000 a year.

On a recent episode of WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven,” Graves and Papantones discussed the Scantlebury Park encounter. They discussed in general how they would approach the position of probate judge: a job that involves making life-changing decisions for the people they preside over in court, such as granting child custody or committing people to mental institutions or deciding whether a scammed senior needs a trustee or settling family disputes over wills or estates.

The candidates offered slightly different takes on the role of a probate judge, while agreeing that the position requires “compassion.”

“The individuals coming before you are looking for help and hope,” Graves said. “Judge Keyes has said this many times: He’s like a ‘judge-slash-social worker.’”

The legislature’s intent in making probate judge an elected position the only such elected judgeship in Connecticut reflects that perspective, Graves argued.

Papantones responded that she sees the position as “more judge than social worker.”

“There are times when I think the judge maybe does act as a social worker, because not everything requires an immediate decision. Sometimes people just need to be heard. Sometimes people just need a little guidance. But that’s not all that happens in a probate court. That’s not all that a probate

3

PAUL BASS PHOTO

Probate judge candidates Clifton Graves and Melissa Papantones.

judge does…. Ultimately decisions have to be made. Somebody has to lose. Unfortunately that’s the way our legal system is.”

“The way our system is set up, it is a win-lose proposition in most courts.

[But] the way the probate court is set up, you’re folowing the law [and] at the same time justice is what you’re looking for” in particularly sensitive personal situations involving vulnerable people, Graves responded. Papantones argued that that holds true in many courts including probate court.

That discussion led to each candidate’s qualifications for the job.

Each spoke of professional experiences that prepared them to handle the kind of thorny disputes that land in probate court. Both are attorneys who have served as hearing officers, Papantones as a court-appointed special master and arbitrator, Graves in administrative proceedings. Both have written wills, served as administrators of estates.

“I have been a litigator for 30 years,” said Papantones, who’s 58. “I deal with rules of evidence every day. I understand discovery. I understand how to present evidence.”

She argued that her experience handling cases for clients of insurance companies is particularly relevant to serving as probate judge. Insurance companies refer to her clients who are being sued for, say, car crashes or accidents in their pools. “I become the intermediary, she said. “I also have to be objective when I evaluate my cases.”

Papantones has also served on the boards of the Community Action Agency, Cultural Affairs Commission, and New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

She has worked as a continuing legal education instructor for the bar association and for the Connecticut Bar Foundation, which promotes “equal access to the legal system for poor and

underserved communities.”

Graves, a 64-year-old graduate of Tufts University and Georgetown University who has been active for decades in New Haven’s civil rights circles, argued that his community experience gives him the edge for the third “c”of the needed qualifications for the job: “connectedness.” (The first two “c”s: competence and compassion.)

He spoke of helping to resolve everyday people’s disputes as a board member of Community Mediation Inc., as director of diversity and equity at Southern Connecticut State University, as a staff lawyer for two mayors (Biagio DiLieto and John Daniels) and for the city housing authority, and in his current job as director of Project Fresh Start, the Harp administration’s prison reentry program. Other boards on which he has served include AIDS Interfaith Network, the Commission on Equal Opportunities, and the NAACP. He has served as a diversity trainer for the Anti-Defamation League as well.

“It is absolutely necessary, imperative, that there be a connectivness to the community, the communities that you’ll be serving, the individuals coming before you looking for help and hope,” Graves argued.

Some Papantones supporters have raised the fact that the state suspended Graves’ legal license between 2001 and 2010 because he failed to make $75 annual payments into a “client security fund.”

Asked about that this week, Graves argued that the matter isn’t relevant to the race. “It was a mistake,” he said.

“It wasn’t willful.” He had moved to North Carolina and hadn’t received forwarded notices about the money due, he said. He also wasn’t practicing law during that time, he said, beyond offering pro bono help to some people.

And he eventually paid back the monCon’t on page 8

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

LEAP Halloween Party Set For Fun, Fright

LEAP’s annual Halloween party for kids and families will be Oct. 27 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the LEAP Community Center at 31 Jefferson St..

We will have face painting, a haunted house, tons of games, pumpkin decorating, scary music, and a photo booth.

We will be joined by our friends from the New Haven Police and Fire Departments as well as volunteers from Yale University.

Once again, we will join with our neighbors on Lyon, William and Bradley Streets to have trick or treating for kids. Each year our great neighbors open their homes to trick or treaters on the same night as LEAP’s Halloween party. We will have plenty of LEAP counselors and staff on each of the streets ensuring a fun and safe night for everyone.

Because hundreds of children attend every year, our neighbors can quickly run out of candy. So please consider donating candy. You can drop it off between 9 am and 7 pm, Monday to Thursday or 9 am to 6 pm on Friday.

We hope to see you on October 27th!

Publisher / CEO

Babz Rawls Ivy

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

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

Editorial Team Staff Writers

Christian Lewis/Current Affairs Anthony Scott/Sports Arlene Davis-Rudd/Politics

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

The following was submitted by LEAP Executive Director Henry Fernandez. That spooky time of year is coming back to New Haven, and you are invited!

This School Day Runs 12 Hours

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK New Haven Independent

Principal Laura Main showed up to work around 6:30 a.m. to welcome kids with cartons of milk. She went home at 6:30 p.m. after meeting with a dozen parents and students to resolve an argument.

That 12-hour span is a typical day at Booker T. Washington Academy for the principal as well as for several of its students. The public charter school at 804 State St. offers extended hours: a boon to working parents and struggling students.

About one-third of the 240-member student body takes advantage of the academy’s after-school programming. A little under half of the parents pay $5 a day; the rest get a discount for financial or academic reasons, from either the school or the state’s Care 4 Kids program.

Why do the schools need this? A ton of reasons, said John Taylor, the school’s executive director. He said the longer day provides parents with “flexibility” in their work schedules and “confidence that their child is safe and well cared for,” while kids

John P. Thomas

CHRISTOPHER PEAK PHOTO John

Taylor high-fives an arriving student.

get “targeted support” on their homework and “age-appropriate playtime.”

Nationally, several high-needs districts have experimented with stretching the school-day’s hours, some of them as voluntary drop-in hours and some of them as mandatory classes.

In New Haven, “extended day and after school programs exist at virtually all schools,” Will Clark, the district’s chief operating officer, wrote in an email. Lincoln-Bassett School partnered with ConnCAT to provide

offerings for both kids and parents, and Hillhouse High School developed a pilot tutoring program last year that is expected to be replicated at other high schools, Clark added. In 2015, three more schools considered hiring AmeriCorps teaching fellows to stretch the day for at least three more hours of classes; Clinton Avenue got state “Commissioner’s Network” funding to add the extra time.

The effects of these extended days are hard to assess, often because

4

schools are given the freedom to allocate the extra time to any subject or enrichment they choose. One case study: In Washington, D.C., seven of the eight schools that lengthened their days scored higher on standardized tests other institutions, notching 10.6 percent gains in math and 7.2 percent in reading within one school year.

At Booker T. Washington on New Haven’s State Street, the first group of students, anywhere from 6 to 15, show up at 6:30 a.m. Early in the morning, before sun-up, there’s no structured programming, just a chance for parents to take the early shift. These kids might read, chat with the supervisor, or take pictures.

For most of Booker T. Washington’s “scholars,” as the K-5 school calls its students, the day starts with a highfive from Taylor. As he greets each student, all in a uniform of maroon polos and khaki pants, Taylor looks for signs of stress. An indicator might be someone who frowns or brushes past his open hand. In those cases, Taylor clicks on his earpiece and radios the principal’s walkie-talkie to pull the student aside.

Con’t on page 12

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

_______________________

Contributors At-Large

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

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

Challenger Defeats 4-Term Union Prez

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven Independent

A challenge slate of public employees calling for more democratic, transparent union leadership came into power on Friday night after a municipal union election saw an end to the current president’s eight-year tenure.

That was the result of AFSCME Local 3144 elections, held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday at the New Haven Central Labor Council at 267 Chapel St. in Fair Haven.

Malinda Figueroa, an executive assistant in the Engineering Department who has worked for the city for 18 years, defeated current union President Cherlyn Poindexter by 10 votes to become the next leader of Local 3144.

Poindexter, an administrative aide to the fire chief who has worked for the city for over 20 years, was vying for a fifth two-year term as union president.

Including the union presidency, Figueroa’s challenge slate won nine out of 12 contested positions on Friday’s ballot, though Poindexter’s current vice president, Harold Brooks, handily won another term as Local 3144’s second-incommand. The challenge slate called for more internal democracy in the union and an end to what it called an unnecessarily antagonist approach to dealing with management; Poindexter and her supporters argued that she fought hard to protect the union from attempts to bust it. The union has been without a contract for two years. Local 3144 represents around 370 management and professional employees of city government, ranging from LCI neighborhood specialists to Building Department administrative assistants to parking enforcement supervisors.

A little over 300 employees showed up to cast their votes in the union elections held on Friday, when members voted for new leadership for positions ranging from president to treasurer to recording secretary.

Camped out for hours on end on opposite sides of the Labor Council’s back parking lot, Figueroa, Poindexter, and their respective supporters spent most of the day greeting new voters and most of the night waiting for the results to be announced.

Although the polls closed at 6 p.m., the results were not announced until midnight, when the election committee finally finished double and triple checking their tallies for all 12 positions.

Soon before the polls closed, Figueroa, who had been at the voting location since 8:15 a.m., said that she was feel-

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

New AFSCME Local 3144 President Malinda Figueroa hugs supporter Sally Brown after union election results are announced early Saturday morning.

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

Cherlyn Poindexter.

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

Figueroa and her challenge slate for Friday’s union election.

ing confident because voter turnout looked like it was going to be high.

“We had a lot of members show up today,” she said while standing alongside the rest of her slate, all set up in lawn chairs at the end of the parking lot closer to Saltonstall Avenue. “We really want to give every member a voice.”

At the other end of the parking lot, closer to the Labor Council’s back entrance, Poindexter and around

20 of her supporters had their own tent pitched, where they sat in lawn chairs, talked shop, and held signs that read “Vote for Cherlyn.”

After the polls closed and the sun set, Poindexter’s group settled in for the night, sharing coffee and donuts and wrapping themselves in blankets and coats as a cool breeze came in from the Long Island Sound.

Ed Joyner, Edward Jefferson, and two other Poindexter supporters en-

tertained the group with barbershop quartet renditions of pop and R&B hits, harmonizing over songs by The Whispers, The Four Seasons, Hall & Oates, and Luther Vandross.

Former Assistant Fire Chief Pat Egan and Edward Jefferson chatted about the history of Contois Tavern in East Rock, fluctuations in homeownership in Newhallville, and Democratic favorites in next year’s state gubernatorial contest.

Throughout the evening, Poindexter’s supporters and fellow candidates spoke about how passionate, knowledgeable, and loyal to her members she had been during her tenure as head of the union. They spoke about how hard she fought to keep members from being fired by the city, and was very often successful in those pursuits.

Poindexter, Brooks, and Poindexter’s supporters declined to give quotations for this story or have their pictures taken, and the rest of her slate and supporters followed suit. They expressed frustration over what they called biased and racially derogative representations of Poindexter that unjustly fomented a negative stereotype of the “angry black woman” in its coverage of her leadership and candidacy.

After six hours of patient and exhausted waiting, the remaining members of the two groups filed into the Labor Council’s conference room at midnight to hear the results.

New Haven government homelessness coordinator Velma George stood at the front of the room, and, with a drumroll of her fingers on the plastic tabletop, welcomed the candidates and read off the tallies.

“Thank you everyone for coming out and participating in the election,” she said. “It’s been a long haul. We all can agree on that? OK, so I know you can’t wait to hear the results. So here they are.”

After George announced that Figueora had won the presidency by a vote of 159 to 149, the challenge slate and their supports let out a loud cheer, with one man shouting: “New slate, new day. Now we can go home.”

Figueora gave a hug of relief and excitement to supporter Sally Brown before heading back to the parking lot and heading home after the long night.

“I’m good,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m looking forward to representing my people, to representing our people. Our people.”

Con’t from page 2

Neighbors Press Developer On Family $

terms of redevelopment. It’s only 9,000 square feet, which he said is too big for some retailers and much too small for others. It also is on a half0acre site and has limited parking.

“There are no retailers out there today that would drive a wholesale redevelopment of that project,” he said. “In other words, knock the building over, buy houses around it ... and create a bigger site, or kind of what the CVS developer did.”

He said Northeast Retail couldn’t, for instance, move its own business to the 1168 Whalley Ave. building and expect to get the financing necessary to buy it and rehabilitate it.

“What ends up happening with buildings like that and this is an issue across many cities like New Haven is that you have to have a tenant that will drive financing that will allow a buyer or an owner to borrow the money that it’s going to take to buy the building and to fix the building to make a it appropriate for a tenants use.”

“Just to follow up, though, there’s only a handful of tenants that you represent in this way,” she asked.

According to the company’s website, Plotkin handles site selection, development and construction management for Town Fair Tire, Advance Auto, and the Rio Bravo/Frontera Grill/Ocho Café chain of Mexican restaurants. One of Plotkin’s partners, Michael Sarasin, who also attended Wednesday’s meeting, does site selection and development for some Family Dollar stores in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, according to the site.

Donius asked if Northeast Retail had shopped the Whalley Avenue building to retailers outside of its established portfolio.

“There is only a handful of retailers that we represent,” Plotkin said. “It’s a different part of our business. Representation means we go out and find those tenants stores that they can lease from other people, not from us. I represent Town Fair Tires, so I do their real estate work. I go out and find stores for them to lease and negotiate their leases. And that’s my role.”

He said in this case Northeast Retail is not acting as middleman between the retailer and a potential owner. In this case, Northeast Retail would own the Whalley Avenue building.

“The role that I have here tonight is kind of a sideline for us,” he added. “We do one or two of these a year. We’re not a big operation. And it’s enough to send our kids to college and do the things that we need to do.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

Plan For Ex-Factory Breaks Condo Barrier Piscitelli Will Replace Gilvarg

by THOMAS BREEN New Haven Independent

With a plan to renovate a shuttered Goatville printing plant, a fast-growing New Haven real estate company is betting that New Haven’s housing boom is ready for condominiums, not just high-end rental apartments.

The testing ground for this condo experiment will be the former Lehman Brothers printing plant at Foster and Canner streets, which has been closed and derelict for almost a decade.

During Monday night’s East Rock Community Management Team meeting at the mActivity Gym on Nicoll Street, project manager Mendy Paris, architect Wayne Garrick, and lawyer Kenneth Rozich of the company Ocean Management presented their prospective plan for converting the building into a 30unit condominium complex. New Haven is awash in new high-end housing construction, but other developers report they have been able to obtain financing only for rentals, not condos. Ocean gets private financing from out-of-state investors and doesn’t need to rely on banks.

Home to one of the country’s preeminent commercial printing companies for almost 80 years, the modest East Rock industrial complex used to produce engravings, fine stationery, and wedding invitations. It closed its doors in December 2008 when Lehman Brothers Inc. fell into Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The plot passed through bankruptcy court into the hands of a young developer, who, in the seven years since buying the property, had not been able to turn the old industrial complex into anything other than an overgrown ruin and neighborhood nuisance.

Several months ago the property was purchased by Ocean, a real estate company run by New Haven native Mendy Katz and owned by Israeli investor Shmuel Aizenberg.

The company originally bought up and renovated trashed low-income rental properties; it has been adding middle-class rentals to its portfolio.

In three years it has mushroomed to one of New Haven’s largest landlords, with over 900 apartments.

According to Paris, a realtor who brokers and rents out properties Ocean renovates, the new owners

The old Lehman Brothers Inc. printing company, which has been empty for almost 10 years.

Paris and Garick.

anticipate investing $8 to 10 million in converting the derelict Lehman Brothers facility into 30 new condos.

Just last month Ocean Management completed a $3.5 million real estate project in the neighborhood, gutting and rehabbing the old YMCA railroad building at 1435 State St. in Cedar Hill and reopening it as a new 21-unit apartment complex.

On Monday night, Paris and Garrick unveiled tentative site plans for the new project.

Garrick first showed the management team an existing survey of the land: a little over an acre in size, bounded by Foster, Canner, Nicoll, and Willow Streets, and encompassing the addresses 191, 197, and 199

Foster St. At its northern end, the site contains a boarded-up, two-story home that Ocean Management plans to demolish.

The center section of the plot contains the old printing press building: a 10,000 square-foot, cast-and-concrete building from 1916 that Garrick described as reminiscent of the Bauhaus style of architecture. Sometime in the 1940s, a large warehouse was added to the main building.

“It’s in decent condition, even though it’s been neglected structurally,” Garrick said about the main building that used to house the printing press. “It is our plan to reuse that building as part of the project.”

6

He said that the new development had been designed according to the zoning standards of a RH-2 District, which regulates high density dwellings, even though its one-acre-plus footprint qualifies the project for a Planned Development Unit (PDU) designation, which allows for greater regulatory flexibility for large residential projects.

“We took the approach to conform to zoning,” Garrick said. “At least as much as we could. And, more importantly, to eliminate the zoning nonconformities and work within the constraints of the zoning ordinance or regulations.”

Garrick told the group that Ocean Management planned on demolishing the warehouse, which currently has a number of zoning nonconformities, including a complete absence of rear yard setback along the Nicoll Street properties. Right now, the complex immediately abuts its residential neighbors’ property lines.

He said that Ocean Management will convert the old printing press building, which is two stories tall, into six two-bedroom units, each of which will be roughly 1,500 square feet.

Where the warehouse currently is, the new owners will construct a fourstory mid-rise building, with groundlevel covered parking and three stories of residential units above. The building will contain 18 residential units: six 2-bedrooms per floor, with each unit roughly 1,350 square feet.

In place of the old, abandoned home at the northern end of the plot, Ocean Management plans to build six 2-bedroom townhouses, each around 1,350 square feet. The townhouses will be separated from the old printing press building by a row of trees.

All residents at the new complex will have their own covered parking spaces as well as some form of semi-private, outdoor space, such as the balcony for residents of the new midrise building or a front yard and garden for the townhouses.

“The idea is that the units are designed differently,” Garrick said in reference to the townhouses, the main building two-bedrooms, and the mid-rise two-bedrooms. “They hopefully are responsive to the different needs of people. And just as importantly we hope that the design of the site plan we’ve developed is

responsive to the neighborhood, and their needs and what could happen in the future.”

Management team chair David Budries asked if Ocean Management anticipates needing to get any variances from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) for this project.

Garrick said that the only major variance consideration for this project pertains to lot coverage. RH-2 districts allow for 30 percent lot coverage; that is, built structures may occupy no more than 30 percent of a plot’s area. This plan currently projects a lot coverage of just under 40 percent. But, instead of pursuing a variance from the BZA, Garrick said, the team plans on applying for the necessary exceptions based on a PDU, or planned development unit, a city zoning tool for projects covering multiple parcels of land.

East Rock Alder Anna Festa asked Garick and Paris to confirm that this project is indeed all condominiums, as opposed to apartment rentals.

“Yes,” Paris said. “We’ll see how the market adapts. But from my understanding, there is a need for condominiums in New Haven. There aren’t a lot of developers doing them right now. We’re pretty confident we should be doing fine with that.”

He told the group that Ocean Management did a lot of market research and, after considering building an apartment complex at this location, decided that New Haven already has plenty of high-end rentals on the market.

“I just want to say that I think it’s great that you’re looking to do these as condominiums,” said Abby Roth, the Democratic candidate for Downtown/East Rock alder. “As someone who lived in a condominium for nine years, I hear a lot from condominium owners that they wish there could be more in New Haven, because people who don’t want to live in a house can still make an investment in the community.”

Paris said that Ocean Management is looking to start construction on this project in June 2018, and to complete construction by the end of 2019. He said that they are not yet sure on how much each condo will cost, but that Ocean Management will market them at “a pretty aggressive price,” likely $300 per square foot.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

Ping Pong Bests Piano, Bikes

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven Independent Wooster Square will soon be home to two public ping pong tables after neighbors voted in a spirited election to spend part of their annual citizen-controlled allotment of the city budget on tabletop tennis.

Such was the result of the most recent Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSCMT) meeting, which was held on the second floor of City Hall.

The meeting featured a “ranked choice”style election not over personalities seeking public office, but rather over how a community should allot public money.

Advocates for public bikes and a kiosk and a piano competed with the ping pong proponent for the public’s support.

Acting on her promise to prioritize diversity, inclusion, and broader neighborhood participation in the monthly management team meetings, new DWSCMT Chair Caroline Smith organized a pitch competition for students, artists, entrepreneurs, and other interested residents to suggest ideas for how the team should spend the remaining $3,000 of its annual Neighborhood Public Improvement Program (NPIP) funds.

For the past three years, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), the city’s anti-blight agency, has distributed $10,000 in NPIP money to each community management team, trusting the civically engaged citizens to dream up and bring to fruition modestly priced projects designed to improve quality of life.

This year, management teams across the city have spent their NPIP funds on everything from youth ambassadors to help clean up neighborhood streets to an underpass graffiti-mural project to buying poles for hanging banner advertisements above highly-trafficked thoroughfares.

In May, the Downtown-Wooster Square team voted to spend some of its NPIP funds on traffic safety measures in Wooster Square, including buying a mobile, radar speed sign for Olive Street.

That project is only projected to cost $7,000, leaving Smith and the DWSCMT Executive Board with a few thousand dollars left in the annual NPIP coffers.

Taking this process of “participatory budgeting” beyond the confines of the management team and towards the great diversity of people who live, work, and study in Downtown and Wooster Square, Smith and the e-board devised the pitch competition, by which people could submit proposals for how to spend the remaining $3,000.

They set up a Facebook event for the contest, tabled at the Wooster Square Farmers Market, and sent out targeted outreach to Youth Continuum, Unidad Latina en Acción, and some schools in the area, like Metropolitan Business Academy on Wooster Street.

“We were just excited to put on an event to find $3,000 ideas that would make a really big impact on the Downtown-Wooster

Square neighborhoods,” Smith told the 40 people gathered at the CMT meeting, which took place Tuesday evening.

The DWSCMT leadership received 18 different proposals for how to spend the money, and then selected 5 finalists to present at the meeting. Each presenter would have three minutes to make a final pitch of their project to the entire group. Then voting-eligible team members (i.e. residents who had attended three of the last six DWSCMT meetings) would cast their vote for which project to fund.

“Something to keep in mind for voters about criteria for these ideas,” Smith advised the group. “Think about these questions: What is the impact of this idea? What is the timeline to implement this idea? Is the idea within a $3,000 budget? How feasible is this idea?

How committed is the individual to seeing this idea through? And what partnerships are involved to strengthen the idea?”

Then the pitching began.

First up was Dr. Jennifer Shaw, a math teacher at Metropolitan Business Academy. Shaw teaches a course there called Statistics for Social Justice, in which she challenges her high school students to think about how math can help solve issues of social injustice.

When she learned about the pitch competition, she brought it to her students to discuss.

“The biggest issue they came up with was transportation,” Shaw told the group. “There’s very little parking in the area. There’s very, very little parking at the school, and no way to expand parking. And our students have a really hard time getting back and forth from jobs right after school, getting back home if they stay after for a club or tutoring, and also getting to college courses, because many of them take courses at Gateway and Yale.”

The solution: free bike share memberships for students. Shaw said that she had spoken with Bike New Haven, the organization that will be managing the city’s upcoming bike share program, which will allow for short-term bicycle rentals at stations located throughout the city.

With Bike New Haven’s help and with a steep student discount, Shaw said, the management team’s $3,000 investment could buy one-year bike share memberships for 200 Metropolitan Business Academy students. Since many of the planned bike share stations will be concentrated downtown, Metro students could easily pick up, drop off, and bike between the different stops already included in the program.

Up next were Jay Garnes and Ruby Gonzalez-Hernandex of the Crown Brown Artists Collective. Their pitch was for a “Community Kiosk”: a seven-foot-tall triangular structure where one side would act as a community bulletin board for posters and other announcements, one side would be a free community bookshelf, and one side would be a chalkboard and a space to store free art supplies.

They said that they would look to work with Make Haven, CT Core, Emerge, and the city’s parks department to realize the project. One possible location for it would be Russo Park.

The third pitch came from Anthony Allen, a local social entrepreneur from East Rock whose project idea was called “Performer Circles.”

“How many people have ever been amazed, wowed, enthralled by a street performance?” Allen asked the group, at which nearly everyone raised their hands.

He said that he had recently visited Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he found a lively downtown plaza filled with a rotating cast of singers, musicians, dancers, and different kinds of buskers and street artists.

“And I started thinking,” Allen said, “‘Why aren’t we doing this in New Haven?’”

Which led him to the idea of “performer circles”: specially demarcated public spaces where local artists could share their talents, get some public exposure, and even earn a little extra money. He said that he would like to work with Make Haven,

8

the Arts Council, and any interested local artists to come up with visual designs for these “mobile stages” and then construct them so that they were weather-resistant and easily transportable.

“There’s a lot of research on the positive impact that busking and street performance has on communities,” Allen said. “And it has the added benefit of showcasing the tremendous artistic talent that we have in this community. It gives us a chance to bring them front and center and give them an opportunity to showcase their work and their passion in a more public forum.”

The final presenter was Lauren Brown, who had submitted two proposals that were selected as finalists by the management team.

With a mobile projector in tow, Brown dimmed the lights and presented her first idea: the Wooster Square Public Piano Project. Already in place in Russo Park for the past few weeks, the outdoor piano is available for anyone to play.

“This is all about coming by and finding something fun and unexpected,” she said about the project. “It’s a way to activate spaces and build communities.” Brown said that the piano is slated to be moved on Oct. 23 from its current location to New Light High School, where students in the school’s new music education initiative will paint a cherry blossom motif on it. She said that management team’s NPIP funds could be used to help ensure that the piano is back in Russo Park in May 2018 with an adequate piano cover, accompanying tuning hardware, and a neighborhood cover crew network.

Brown’s second idea was for to spend the remaining NPIP money on public ping pong tables.

“Ping pong is a fun activity for young and old,” she said. “It requires minimal equipment, has obvious health advantages, and can be an effective sculptural addition to a Con’t on page 13

Con’t from page 3

Candidates Diverge

ey. Papantones, meanwhile, faces the challenge of convincing New Haveners to vote for a Republican in a city where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 16-1. The national party these days does not enjoy a compassionate reputation in blue enclaves like New Haven.

For the most part, said Papantones, a Vassar and Emory law graduate, she doesn’t see much relevance in party labels when it comes to serving as a judge. “Except Republicans tend to be fiscally conservative, which is why I’m a Republican. When you’re dealing with other people’s money, that could be a good thing,” especially when that involves the money of minors.

She regularly faced the “why are you Republican?” question the two times she ran again then-State Sen. Toni Harp, Papantones said. But she hasn’t faced it in this race.

“When people understand what probate court is,” she said, “they immediately stop politicizing it.”

But under Connecticut’s system, seeking a probate judgeship is a political process. Graves and Papantones disagreed on the wisdom of electing probate judges.

“Probate court shouldn’t be a political position. Unfortunately we have to run on a party line. This is a very serious position. There are a lot of people that are served by the probate court.

They are vulnerable,” Papantones argued. She noted that a Judicial Selection Committee vets the qualifications of nominees for other judgeships, whom the governor appoints and the legislature confirms or in the case of small claims court, whom a clerk of the court appoints.

“Most things that happen in court are emotional. They’re difficult,” she said.

Graves cited “a certain arrogance” in the idea that professional associations can vet a probate judge better than voters can.

He argued that the legislature had demonstrated a conscious intent in singling out probate judges to be elected, and that it reconfirmed that intent when revisiting the issue a decade ago. “There are many lawyers who vetted this and weighed in on this,” he noted. “The decision was made that this would be the one position that the people would have some input in.” New Haveners will offer that input next month for the first time in decades.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

“Debate” Features Call For Democracy

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven Independent

At a mayoral “debate” Tuesday night where no active mayoral candidates debated each other, two policy proposals did surface: creating a hybrid electedappointed Board of Police Commissioners and expanding public financing for city elections.

The New Haven Democracy Fund organized a mayoral debate on Tuesday night in the library of the Benjamin Jepson Magnet School on Lexington Avenue in Fair Haven Heights.

The Democracy Fund is a city program that provides public matching dollars for New Haven mayoral candidates who abide by certain fundraising restrictions, including limiting individual campaign contributions to no more than $370 each.

In order to qualify for Democracy Fund financing, interested mayoral hopefuls must participate in a candidate debate hosted by the Fund.

So far no one has qualified for financing in the general election for mayor in New Haven. But two candidates did sign up for the program. One of them, Working Families Party candidate Sarah Ganong, said she doesn’t intend to raise money but wanted to show her support for the program by signing up. She also said she doesn’t want to serve as mayor; she seeks to win 1 percent of the vote so her party, which cross-endorses progressive Democrats, can obtain a line on future municipal elections.

Marucs Paca, who did obtain public financing in last month’s Democratic mayoral primary, which he lost 3-1, did sign up for the fund for the general election campaign as well. His name will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot as an unaffiliated candidate. But he has suspended his campaign and not put in for more public cash.

The only candidate actively running for mayor, incumbent Democrat Toni Harp, is not participating in the publicfinancing system and did not participate in Tuesday’s debate. (Click here to read about and watch a primary debate between Harp and Paca.)

Even the moderator from the League of Women Voters did not show up when the debate started Tuesday night, because the League had not received word that Paca, after suspending his campaign, still intended to participate.

Ganong and Paca did show up for the “debate.” Ganong did not take questions, however. She merely gave an opening statement.

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

Paca, Ganong show up.

Nevertheless, the show went on.

New Haven Votes Coalition‘s Aaron Goode stepped up to fill in as lastminute moderator before a crowd of barely a dozen attendees, half of whom were from the media. Goode asked Paca questions for 40 minutes as Ganong sat quiet beside him at a table in the front of the room.

During those 40 minutes, Paca several times proposed that the Board of Police Commissioners, like the Board of Education, should consist of a mix of elected and appointed members. Currently, all police commissioners are appointed by the mayor.

He said that the slight change in composition would be an important step in making the Board of Police Commissioners more responsive to public concerns, particularly if the Board were to be reconstituted as a Civilian Review Board.

“The reason why I support a hybrid Board of Police Commissioners,” Paca said, “is because, according to state law, only the police commission has the right to subpoena. And since they already have the right, it just kind of makes more sense to have an election to put people from the community that actually earn the support and earn the trust of real New Haveners on the board to represent those concerns.”

He also noted that the current Board of Alders has failed to present final civilian review board legislation for debate, despite a 2013 charter

revision vote mandating the creation of such a board. He argued the issue simply is not a priority for local politicians who are insulated from any repercussions of police misconduct.

“If we all know that the mayor supports something,” he said, “and we know that the Board of Alders also explicitly supported it, then why hasn’t it been done? It hasn’t been done because it’s not a priority. And it’s not a priority because it doesn’t affect the people that are actually voting on it.”

Alders involved in drawing up the proposal say they’re trying to get it right, and got delayed over the issue of how to give the review board real authority when state law would bar it from having subpoena power.

In response to a series of questions about public education in New Haven and the continued infighting on the Board of Education, Paca said that the mayor needs to push for hiring a superintendent based on qualifications, not on geography.

“I think that we should hire the best qualified superintendent,” he said.

“Period. I don’t care if they’re from Woodbridge or New Haven or New York or Honolulu. We need to hire the best person that’s going to fit best with our students and our core values at the Board of Education.”

He referred to the delays and disputes around the superintendent search as “another example of how the Board of Ed plays politics with our students.”

Goode’s final questions of the night pertained to good government, trans-

9

parency, and public financing of elections in New Haven. He asked Paca if the Democracy Fund, which currently

only covers mayoral races, should be expanded to other citywide campaigns, like City Clerk and Board of Ed, and even to aldermanic races.

“I definitely would support expanding the Democracy Fund for any citywide or Board of Ed elected position,” Paca said. “It only makes sense. There’s a lot of money sitting in the Democracy Fund that goes unused.”

According to Democracy Fund administrator Aly Heimer, the Fund currently has $250,000 available to distribute to interested and qualified candidates.

Paca said that, a few years ago, he would likely have leaned against the idea of expanding public financing to include aldermanic races. But, with the rise of the UNITE HERE unions’ political advocacy in 2011 and beyond, he said that, if elected mayor, he would certainly consider it.

“When you have big money coming into local elections,” he said, “I think we should probably consider whether or not the Democracy Fund be extended to aldermanic elections.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

B-Ball Courts Get TLC

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

Outdoor basketball courts in the city—21 one of them to be exact—are sporting new surfaces and paint thanks to an initiative to make them a safe place to play.

On Thursday, Mayor Toni Harp and the city staffers who helped make the transformation happen met at Winslow-Augustine Park in the West Rock neighborhood to reveal the fruits of their labor.

The summer-long project grew out of a facilities inventory conducted by city Parks Deputy Director Bill Dixon and parks landscape architect Dave Moser.

The men discovered about 500 linear feet of cracks on those 21 courts. Of those identified courts, Winslow-Augustine was in the worst shape and got the biggest overhaul, according to city Parks Director Becky Bombero.

“The mayor prioritizes healthy active lifestyles, and our courts get a lot of play,” Bombero said. “While it’s not organized play, it’s intensive use. So basketball court renovations was a good way to fit in with the mayor’s priorities. This project has served ev-

Dixon, Zinn, Harp, and Bombero on the new court.

ery neighborhood throughout the city and provides a safe place for people to go to play.”

She said that the courts at WinslowAugustine were too far gone to be patched. The court was completely dug up and new asphalt laid.

All of the city’s courts didn’t get an overhaul, because some of them like the ones at East Rock Park have already been done, or just weren’t in as bad shape. The whole project to upgrade the 21 courts cost about $250,000.

Winslow-Augustine Park also got a

new pedestrian bridge that connects it to the nearby Brennan-Rogers School.

City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said the new pedestrian bridge replaces one that likely was built when the nearby school was built. The bridge is a manufactured box truss that was put into place with a crane. A second bridge that will directly connect the Brookside housing development to the park is also in the works, which would allow neighbors to shave some time when walking to the park or anywhere else on Wilmot Road, which now takes more than 15 minutes.

BZA Approves Dixwell Arts Center

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK New Haven Independent

A multimillion-dollar arts center that will replace an abandoned factory in Dixwell won the zoning board’s unanimous approval Tuesday night.

The PostMasters Project, which aims to transform an industrial complex at 169 Henry St., into a 38,000 square feet of apartments for visiting artists, studios and gallery spaces, offices, an assembly hall and a cafe, received approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals for a number of waivers: special exceptions to open a nonconforming use in the residential zone and to permit a far lower number of parking spaces, as well as variances to extend the front steps, widen a loading dock and construct a third story for apartments.

“I’d just say how important art is to the City of New Haven,” said Benjamin Trachten, the board’s chair who noted he’d spent the last two weekends at this year’s City-Wide Open Studios.

“To see an arts-related use going this far out of the comfort zone of down-

CHRISTOPHER PEAK

Titus Kaphar, one of the artists behind the PostMasters Project.

town is a great thing.

Trachten said he was impressed the applicants were willing to invest so much money — around $5.8 million — into overhauling a building that’s “wholly unsuited for an artistic use.”

That shows their “commitment to the process,” he added.

The project’s backers can now start getting permits to begin construction, which they’ve said could wrap up as early as Sept. 2018.

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Con’t from page 3

This School Day Runs 12 Hours

On a recent morning, a girl stood crying in the doorway to the front office, begging for her mother to come back. The morning supervisor picked up the girl and held her on her lap until the tears stopped. An older girl sitting next to her talked about puppets, while two boys eat cereal and played on an iPad. Around 7:15 a.m., Taylor and the teachers fanned out around the property to welcome students.

Taylor waved to every passing car and got a few honks back. When the buses arrived, he helped a few kids leap down from the steps. When cars rolled up, he opened the door and helped zip up backpacks. He made two calls on his microphone to Main: One girl was angry at her brother and needed a hug, and another girl’s red eyes might have been pinkeye the nurse needed to check out.

Using the Yale-developed RULER system, a color-coded mood meter, Main debriefs each student individually. After Main asks how the student was feeling, the scholar can point to gradations of four main colors: red for anger, yellow for happy, blue for sad and green for calm. In just a few minutes, Main helps the child cope, by taking deep breaths or reframing the problem.

Often, this doesn’t require an extensive interview. “I don’t need to know what’s going on to identify what the emotion is,” Main explained. Rather, “it’s trying to shift the emotion.”

Those interventions are rare, Main added. “Usually our scholars are pretty excited to get to school. They’re almost running, and we have to tell them to walk. But that’s what you want.”

By the time school officially starts, with a working breakfast, the educators’ hope is that students will be able to focus just on their classwork, not whatever else preceded it, Taylor said.

School officially runs 7.5 hours each day, giving students the chance to absorb five hours daily in the core subjects or reading and math and extra time for electives. Weekly, the students pick up 2.25 hours of science, 4.5 hours of art and dance, 2.25 hours of physical education, and 1.5 hours of Spanish.

After the official day ends, kids take a break with a snack then launch into a rotating schedule of after-school activities. What’s unexpected at Booker T. Washington is how the voluntary

program integrates work and play.

During the extra hours, the gradeschoolers don’t robotically continue to drill their lessons. Instead, homework and reading are mixed in with a rotating schedule of snacking and chatter, breathing and exercise, and music and dance.

Walking the halls, one can see the kids are clearly enjoying themselves.

“They get to do their schoolwork and a chance to exhale,” said Anton Bures, the after-school program director. “Kids’ attention is not something that they can provide without limit. We build in that variation.”

That’s a change from the after-school program’s original structure, Taylor said. When it was first offered, the focus was just on finishing up the day’s homework, he said. Parents love when students have their homework done, Main noted. But essentially, the program felt closer to babysitting. Now the kids have more access to technology and student-centered activities, like checking out books, dancing to music, learning musical instruments, and moving mindfully, alongside the extra tutoring.

Sometimes the segments don’t go according to plan. A class on relaxation techniques, through breathing and stretching, can turn into a freefor-all with almost half the class in five-minute time-outs at desks, or it can be a tranquil run through various poses. Sometimes even the wilder sessions are a way for kids to get out their pent-up energy.

Many of these activities are led by academic assistants. That gives lead teachers the afternoon off to prep the next day’s lesson plan, while the assistants gain experience directing classroom activities for a smaller group of students.

Altogether, that means some kids are at Booker T. Washington for up to 12 hours. Vinise Cook, the parent of a kindergartner and second grader, sends her kids to both the morning and afternoon sessions. It helps with her work schedule, and her kids “love” it,” Cook said.

Heath Crawford said he likes that his daughter in kindergarten gets “handson extra teacher time.” Mahogany Tyson said it is “very effective and very helpful” to have a place where her kids can wrap up their homework.

Parents often say they “feel at ease knowing that their child is in the same location as their school,” Main said, even if it means long days for her.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

HazWaste Central

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Last Collection of the Season October 28, 2017

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SATURDAYS ONLY, 9 AM–NOON THROUGH OCT. 28, 2017 HazWaste Central is for residents of these participating towns: Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, East Haven, Fairfield, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Meriden, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Wallingford, West Haven, Woodbridge.

Residential Waste Only

PARTIAL LIST OF WHAT TO BRING TO HAZWASTE CENTRAL KITCHEN & BATHROOM Aerosols

Floor Care Products

Nail Polish Remover

Bathroom Cleaners

Metal & Furniture Polish

Oven, Drain, Tile Cleaners

GARAGE & WORKSHOP Antifreeze

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Gasoline

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grant DEADLINES Letter of Intent: November 22 | Application: December 20 MORE INFO/APPLICATION: 203.946.7172 UPCOMING INFORMATION SESSIONS Nov. 1 - Mitchell Library. 5:00pm.

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CITY OF NEW HAVEN, TONI. N. HARP, MAYOR

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visit www.rwater.com/hazwaste or call 203-401-2712 Located at the Regional Water Authority, 90 Sargent Drive, New Haven, I-95 exit 46.

11

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. Calls for “Full-Scale” Boycott of BMW

By Freddie Allen, Editor-In-Chief, NNPA Newswire

Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., the founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, called for a “full-scale” boycott of BMW, the German automaker, for refusing to reply to the survey for the group’s annual diversity scorecard.

Not only did BMW refuse to complete the survey, the German automaker also refused to meet with the civil rights leader.

Jackson made the announcement, during a press conference at the 2017 Rainbow PUSH Coalition Global Automotive Summit.

“The diversity scorecard was developed in 2012 to provide a snapshot of each manufacturer’s success at building and sustaining ethnic diversity and inclusion, with a primary focus on people of color,” the survey’s report said.

Jackson said that he met with all of the automakers that participated in the survey.

The diversity scorecard participants included: Ford Motor Company; Toyota Motor North America; General Motors; Nissan North America; Hyundai Motor America; Fiat Chrysler Automobiles; Honda North America; Subaru of America; Kia Motors America; MercedesBenz USA and Volkswagen Group of America.

The automakers answered questions about employment, advertising, marketing procurement, minority dealership opportunities and philanthropy.

The auto companies that reflected best practices for ethnic diversity established by the Rainbow PUSH Automotive Project, an initiative of the Citizenship Education Fund, earned green scores.

Red marks indicated that diversity initiatives and investments were

non-existent, not disclosed, or the company didn’t provide enough relevant information for scoring.

Ford and Toyota earned tops scores for employment, advertising, marketing, procurement and philanthropy. General Motors scored green in employment, marketing, procurement and philanthropy.

At the other end of the spectrum, Kia Motors America, MercedesBenz USA and Volkswagen earned failing grades in advertising, marketing and procurement and yellow scores, which indicate some progress in diversity, for employment, dealership diversity and philanthropy.

BMW earned red marks in all categories, because they refused to reply to the survey request.

According to Jackson, that refusal showed the company’s contempt and resentment towards the Black community.

“We are in a different stage of our civil rights struggle,” said Jackson.

“The first stage of our struggle was to end legal slavery; the next phase was to end legal Jim Crow; the third stage was the right to vote.”

Now, that the Black community brings money, market share, talent and experience to the table, Black businesses should be seen as partners, Jackson said.

“We trade for with you, you trade with us,” said Jackson. “There is more to the car than the ride.”

The civil rights leader called for “a full-scale boycott of BMW” until the company agrees to meet with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and works out “a mutually beneficial trade relationship.”

Jackson said that Blacks account for more than 10 percent of purchases of the company’s luxury models.

According to a 2014 poll by Strategic Vision, a research and consultant firm based in San Diego, Calif.,

BMW was the brand that was most often cited as a future vehicle purchase for African Americans.

“If you have a BMW, we urge you to get another car. If you don’t have one, don’t plan on [buying one],” said Jackson. “We’re saying to the auto industry, ‘we’ve worked too hard and consumed too much, to be locked out.’”

Jackson said that the Black community wants equity, parity and mutually beneficial, reciprocal business relationships across all business sectors, a message that he plans to convey through a partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a trade group that represents more than 200 Black-owned media companies. NNPA media outlets reach more than 20 million readers in print and online every week.

Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the NNPA, recognized that some people will question why the Black community and its

174 Cedar St. Branford, CT. 06405 12

allies should support the BMW boycott.

“The real question is: Why did BMW decide to boycott the diversity report card? It’s an insult!” Chavis exclaimed. “What is BMW hiding?

Why isn’t BMW joining the rest of the auto sector in responding to the report card?”

Dorothy Leavell, the chairman of the NNPA and publisher of the Crusader Newspaper Group, said that the diversity scorecard is very important, because there are companies that say that they do business with the Black community, yet, the scorecard proves that they don’t.

Leavell said that when it comes to promoting ethnic diversity and inclusion and economic equity, obviously BMW doesn’t have anything to show.

“To insult an organization like [the Rainbow PUSH Coalition], to not even respond to very valid inquiries, means that BMW should be boy-

cotted,” said Leavell. “Our people should know what kind of business BMW conducts.”

USA Today reported that Strategic Vision also found that Blacks said that a manufacturer’s reputation was “extremely important” 61 percent of the time; White consumers said that a manufacturer’s reputation was “extremely important” 50 percent of the time.

“Instead of investing in a company, like BMW, that doesn’t care about them, Black people should be doing business with automakers that do,” said Leavell.

Leavell noted that economic boycotts have been successful in the past in getting companies to change their business practices.

“It’s always been the pocketbook,” said Leavell. “I think that we forget that sometimes, so maybe this is a good time to remind them.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017 Con’t from page 8

Ping Pong Bests Piano, Bikes

space.”

Showing pictures of public tables in Montreal and New York City, she said that these tables are popping up in cities throughout the world, and that they encourage casual, engaging, fun public interactions between neighbors.

Brown said that the recommended playing area on a regulation ping pong table was between 11 x 19 feet and 13 x 28 feet.

She said that, based on a conversation with a local concrete contractor, a single table could cost around $1,400. She would advocate for working with Make Haven to create a stainless steel net, and for working with the public library to develop a ping pong paddle lending program.

The city does not currently have any public ping pong tables.

Brown cited Lenzi Park, Jocelyn Square, and Wooster Memorial Park as potential candidates for ping pong table locations, pending Parks Department approval.

“Build it, and they will come,” she said with a smile at the end of her presentation.

After the presentations, voting members filled out their ballots and submitted them to the DWSCMT executive board, which huddled in a corner of the room after the meeting had ended to tally the votes.

Keeping in line with the experimental, hyperlocal, democratic nature of the NPIP program itself, the DWSCMT asked its members to vote on the five projects according to a ranked choice or “instant runoff” election model.

Each voting member ranked the projects on their ballots from one to five, with one being the project he or she liked the most.

Instead of granting victory to the project that got the most one rankings, the executive board would tally all of the rankings for each of the five projects and see if one any had received a majority, rather than a plurality, of top votes.

If not, then the project with the least number of top votes would be eliminated from contention. All the ballots that had ranked that eliminated project the highest would then shift their vote to their second choice.

This process would continue until one of the projects still in contention had won an outright majority.

“A brief footnote about process,” DWSCMT secretary Aaron Goode said before any voting had begun. “As you see your ballot, some of you may be asking: ‘Why are they using ranked choice instead of multi-nontransferrable voting? I mean, what’s up with that?’ To which we would respond: ‘Thank you for asking. That’s a wonderful question.’ We’re using ranked choice because it produces more finely grained responses and ultimately gives a fairer result than straight plurality voting.”

“I share that information with you not because it’s my favorite subject,” he continued. “Although it is. But because we in the management team strive to be fully transparent about all aspects of our process and the rationale for that process.”

After the meeting, Goode told the Independent that ranked choice voting is currently used in local elections in Portland, Maine; Oakland and San Francisco, California; Cambridge, Mass.; and, as of last year, it has been approved to be used in all statewide elections in Maine.

After the votes had been cast and the results had been tallied, Brown’s public ping pong table project emerged victorious, edging out her Wooster Square public piano project by one vote. After the meeting, Parks director Becky Bombero told the Independent via email that Brown will be on the Parks Commission agenda for November to present. And, with the management team’s $3,000 in NPIP funds going her way, she will soon be able to start working towards making her pitch a reality.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

The Retirement of Amex’s Ken Chenault Means Just 3 CEOs on the Fortune 500 Are Black. His retirement was long in the making.

Commons Wikimedia, Public Domain

by Lucinda Shen, FORTUNE Credit card giant American Express announced Wednesday that Kenneth Chenault, its CEO of 16 years, was passing on the torch to younger blood: 58-year-old Stephen Squeri.

We’re starting a new chapter from a position of strength and this is the right time to make the leadership transition to someone who’s played a central role in all that we’ve accomplished,” Chenault said of Squeri, who was previously a vice chairman at the company, in a statement.

“Steve knows the industry. He knows the business and the brand. He knows the marketplace and how important the rela-

tionships we build with customers are to our success. He’s an excellent strategist and a strong leader.”

Chenault’s retirement has been long in the making. The CEO has been with American Express since 1981, and became CEO in 2001. By 2015, he had already passed on oversight of the company’s operations to his protege, Vice President Edward Gilligan. But in May, Gilligan died suddenly of a blood clot — leaving Chenault at the reins at a time when the company’s stock had fallen to a four-year low around $52 after losing one of it’s biggest customers: Costco.

Today, the stock is trading at $92 a share, just off its all-time high of $95.

Tom Joyner Announces Retirement —

But Rumors About Him Being Forced Out of the Company Are Not True!

Dallas, TX — Tom Joyner, founder and host of the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show says that he will soon be retiring in 2019. His long-time co-host, Sybil Wilkes, will also be signing off for good.

The show has long been the most popular radio show for African Americans with more than 8 million listeners every morning in more than 100 markets. Joyner, who is now 67-years old, launched the show more than 25 years ago back in 1994 after hosting a morning program in Dallas and an afternoon radio show in Chicago for 8 years.

The Daily Mail Online, however, has falsely reported that Joyner is being forced into early retirement next year by his company, REACH Media, and owners and distributors of the syndicated show.

This matter was cleared up in a statement from Melody Talkington, the company’s vice president.

Her statement reads: “Any stories that suggest major changes to the Tom Joyner Morning Show are inaccurate. Tom Joyner is under contract with REACH Media until the end of 2017. We expect that REACH will continue to syndicate Tom’s show beyond that date and for as long as he would like to be on the air.

There has always been refinements and

Tom Joyner updates to the show as well as market changes due to local conditions, and there may be some in the future; but Tom Joyner and the Tom Joyner Morning show continues to be strong and is a daily Party with a Purpose. REACH is committed to Tom Joyner for the long term who remains committed to radio, his audience and the future.”

Via his foundation, Joyner has been known for his massive support to the Black community. He has raised more than $65 million for Historically Black

Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and has given away hundreds of thousands of dollars in full tuition scholarships.

In addition, for years he has hosted an annual star-studded family reunion at his home for Black celebrities and influentials. He also hosts an annual celebrity cruise called the Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage.

For more details about Tom Joyner and his company, REACH media, visit www.ReachMediainc.com

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

INCREDIBLE! Philando Castile Fund Pays School Lunch For Whole Year!

by T. R. Causay, Social Reporter, BlackDoctor.Org

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Students in St. Paul, and soon to be most of Minnesota will receive free lunch thanks to the memory of a Black man slain in America. A memorial fund set up in honor of Philando Castile has raised enough money to pay off lunch debts at schools across St. Paul, Minnesota for one year.

If you recall, Castile was fatally shot by police officer Jeronimo Yanez in 2016 after he told the officer that he was carrying a firearm after being pulled over. According to a police dashcam video/audio, after being asked for his license and registration, Castile told the officer he had a firearm, to which the officer replied ‘Don’t reach for it then’. After saying ‘Don’t pull it out’ twice [7], the officer shot at Castile seven times while his girlfriend and four year old daughter was in the back seat. The killing ignited national discussion after videos of the shooting and its aftermath went viral. Yanez was acquitted on all charges against Castile.

Philando Feeds the Children, an online crowdfunding venture started by Metropolitan State University psychology professor Pam Fergus, had raised more than $90,000 on Tuesday afternoon — $85,000 more than the original goal of $5,000. Because of the momentum of the campaign, organizers have increased their goal to $100,000 in order to maximize their lunch debt relief efforts for students across Minnesota.

“This fund really speaks to exactly who Philando Castile was as a passionate school nutrition leader,” Stacy Koppen, director of the district’s nutrition services told NBC News.

Castile was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Saint Paul Central High School in 2001 and worked for the Saint Paul Public School District from 2002 until his death. Castile began as a nutrition services assistant at Chelsea Heights Elementary School and Arlington High School (now Washington Technology Magnet School). He was promoted to nutrition services supervisor at J. J. Hill Montessori Magnet School, in August 2014.

According to The New York Times, Castile was affectionately known as “Mr. Phil” to the students and would often financially assist students who were not able to purchase lunches with his own money. This led Fergus to create The Philando Feeds The Children Fund in memory of his service. Castile was known for maintaining “great

16

(Photo Credit: Youcaring.com Fundraising Site) relationships with staff and students alike” according to a statement from Saint Paul Public Schools.

On average, school meals cost $400 a year for one student’s lunch according to Koppen. She shared that families in the St. Paul Public School system who fall outside the qualification level for free and reduced lunch “most definitely” need the kind of intervention support this fund provides.

If you don’t think school lunches really make a difference, check this out: The University of California, along with the Nutritional Policy Institute compiled a database covering a fiveyear timespan with school-by-gradelevel test results on California’s Standardized Testing and Reporting exam, a statewide test given at the time to all public-school students in grades 2 through 11.

Many of the students who can’t afford lunch often settle for unhealthy snacks like chips, highly-processed cheap food, carbonated drinks or even go without eating.

Test score data from some 9,700 elementary, middle, and high schools found that contracting with a healthy meal vendor correlated with increased student performance by between .03 and .04 standard deviations—a statistically significant improvement for economically disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students.

The study found that — to put it bluntly — meals could raise student achievement by about 4 percentile

points on average.

“Children require that nutrition to focus their attention on their academics.

We know that students who receive these meals are able to pay attention and perform better on exams.” Koppen said.

St. Paul’s School provides breakfast, lunch, snacks and summer programs.

Some students eat all meals with them each day. She added that, “For the academic setting, nutrition and school meals are just as important as textbooks.”

“This project means the world to me.”

Valerie Castile, Philando’s mother, told Star Tribune. She presented the first check from the venture to the school where Philando last worked, J.J. Montessori, on Friday afternoon.

On the fundraising site, it reads: “Many people wonder if this site and venture has been approved by Philando’s family. Absolutely! I talked with Philando’s mother, Valerie Castile, before this site was created. We have her approval and blessing. I send her the comments. I keep her updated about our success. Ms. Castile is an amazing woman who dedicates herself to justice and peace. I am grateful to know her, and to do this to honor her beloved son.”

St. Paul Public Schools and Fergus will continue to work together to identify students and get money in their accounts in the hopes of supporting their most optimal life outcomes.

A "Guavalicious" Good Time THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

the space, where his father sat at a table in the back of the room. On stage, Jayare McKenzie started in with a drum beat. Reynolds lifted the mic from its stand, the long black cord trailing with him.

“Peace and power is my dream team!” he began, pushing his chest out. Under a green jacket, the white Peace & Power logo bobbed with his breathing. “Peace and power is my dream team.”

Around him, the band came to life, a fusion of keys and drums, brass and bass spilling over the lip of the stage. Vonnerand Murphy marched in place, completely in sync as they pushed out a baa baaa baaah and long beau under Reynolds’ vocals.

As McKenzie worked furiously from drum to cymbal, drum to cymbal, Reynolds segued into a piece on his spiritual gratitude, “Thanking the Lord I got bread.”

Everybody tryna survive and stay alive People be like where is the God in a 9-5 What you gon do? In the hood they be shooting Drugs a problem too In the burbs they be shooting Up And we’re battling upstream And I be looking crazy when I begin to sing.

The band wailed on as he rocked back and forth, then began to circle a small section at the front of the stage. As the song wound down, he ushered the audience onto its feet.

“When I say peace, you say power,” he yelled. “Peace!”

“Powerrrrrr!” the audience shouted back. Attendees filled the floor in front of the stage, swaying with the music. At the front, Elm City Vineyard Pastor Josh Williams crouched low to the ground and worked his way back up, his wife (and fellow worship pastor at the church) Tina bobbing alongside him. A la Jimi Hendrix, Mike Rodriguez hoisted his guitar over his shoulders, inverted it in less than five seconds, and continued to play as it sat on his upper back. As the audience cheered, he flipped it back over his head, walked up to the front of the stage, and lowered his mouth to the instrument.

“I feel great,” Reynolds said after the performance. “Musicians have the power to be griots and prophets and I take that seriously … in terms of being a vessel and being a conduit

Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper

J.P. Reynolds rocked at his hips, shoulders getting in on the action. He began to sink into his knees, soaked in light that changed from yellow to pink to green back to yellow again. His right hand flattened out and bounced at his side. Then, without warning, he kicked the air, stepped back, and kept going.

In shadow at stage left, Gabrielle Murphy, Lessie Vonner, and Kalia Vandever laid down a thick, throaty brass melody, rocking from side to side in unison.

Members of the crowd followed their movement, faces catching in the light.

On long notes, the slide on Vandever’s trombone pushed out past the stage, within striking distance of the audience.

Friday night, Reynolds bought those stylings to Hamden’s Outer Space, transforming the venue into an intimate study in hip-hop, youth empowerment, and spiritual resilience. Accompanied by members of Peace & Power Media, the New York based artist spun his craft into fast-flying lyrics, untethered dance, and a baptism by music that had the audience at its feet by the end of the evening.

Reynolds isn’t new to New Haven: He attended Yale as an undergraduate and then stayed on for Divinity School, moving to New York in 2012. There, he founded Peace & Power Media, which is dedicated to celebrating, connecting and promoting artists of color. In 2015, he started working for The Future Project, adding education to his resume.

Friday night, he said, signaled a sort of brief homecoming, a chance to come back and bless a space just briefly before heading back to New York.

“We’re gonna have a guavalicious time,” Reynolds said as he introduced members of the band—Criston Oates on bass, Jayare McKenzie on drums, Sidney Antoine and Mike Rodriguez on guitar, Duvane Whilby on keyboards, Murphy on sax, Lessie Vonner on trumpet, and Vandever on trombone.

He looked out into the crowd, a red and yellow print bandana catching sweat that was already trickling down.

“Guava is a call to rise—to re-access power that we have,” he said. A puff of blue smoke billowed out past him, turning things a deep ghostly blue. For a moment, the stage smelled of chalk.

“We need that power back.”

He paced around the microphone, still for only a moment as he looked out on

17

for that type of power. The more people hear it, I feel like they can experience that power with me—and they can take some action too.”

“I ultimately want people to leave feeling confident in who they are, who they’re called to be, how we can connect with people and have radical conversations,” he added. “To think about things in a different way, to shift some heart-space, mind-space things.”

That move toward empowerment and self-celebration began not just with Reynolds, but opener Paul Bryant Hudson. A born and bred New Havener, Hudson arrived with musicians Stephen King, Pete Greco, Max Spinell and Travis Hall, ready to perform.

But he started with a cover. As conversations hushed with a flourish of piano notes, slowed-down verses from Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” coasted over the crowd.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery/None but ourselves can free our minds, he crooned, the song his own by the time it pushed through his lungs to the air. How long shall they kill our prophets/While we stand aside and look?

Marley led Hudson and his band into a set that traversed community engagement to racial parity. After slowing down with a deeply moving tribute to John Henry that he had written—soulful, lung-filled wails and soft refrains, like something for a celebration of one’s life—he roused the room with a cover of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.” Then he prepared to get personal.

“I’ve been dealing with this stereotype of the big black man in the workplace,” he said before launching into “Black Parade.” Around him, audience members leaned in to listen to the words.

Woooaaahhh feel my rage, he sang, throwing his head back and opening his mouth side as he sang. Oooohhhh it’s the black parade.

Behind him, Greco started the band on a round of solos, Hall quieting on the drums until they were just a soft pum pum pum rumm pum in the background.

Around them, the space seemed to shrink, from the cavernous room to a small salon or church sanctuary, where the group was at capacity. Their applause, punctuating with whoops and snaps, filled the room.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

A Bright Light of the Black Press Dims:

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor

The National Newspaper Publishers Association lost one of its own this week.

Bernal E. Smith II, the president and publisher of the Tri-State Defender and a well-known civic leader in Memphis, Tenn., died Sunday.

Smith was 45.

The Tri-State Defender, among the longest running African-American newspapers in the country and a member publication of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, noted on its website that Smith was with his family when he was found Sunday, October 22.

“The New Tri-State Defender and its management board was devastated when we learned that Mr. Smith had passed,” associate publisher Karanja Ajanaku said in a statement along with Calvin Anderson, the president of Best Media Properties, the Defender’s parent company.

Smith’s death caught many of his colleagues off-guard; all of them expressed shock and sympathy for his family.

“I am personally saddened by the death of our comrade and publisher Bernal Smith,” said Dorothy Leavell, the publisher of the Crusader newspapers in Chicago and the chairman of the NNPA. “He was just elected vice chairman in June and we were looking forward to working closely with him to find solutions for the future of our beloved Black Press.”

Smith was a serious and dedicated member of the fourth estate, Leavell added.

“We shall miss him so much,” said Leavell.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, the presi-

dent and CEO of the NNPA, said that the entire NNPA family of African American publishers across the nation deeply mourns Smith’s death.

“As publisher of the New Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Smith represented the journalistic genius of a freedom-fighting publisher, who was dedicated to the empowerment of Black America,” Chavis said. “Long live the spirit of Bernal Smith.”

Joy Bramble, publisher of The Baltimore Times, said she was simply shocked by the news of Smith’s death.

“I was just working with him on some things, I just can’t believe it,” Bramble said.

Rosetta Perry, the publisher of the Tennessee Tribune, called Smith a true friend and a bright light.

“When I met him, we just clicked and I was comfortable with him, like I had known him my whole life, and I didn’t have to pretend to be anyone or anything,” Perry said. “That voice that we loved to hear at our meetings and training sessions is now still.

Bernal’s place at the board of directors’ meetings will now be vacant, but he will live forever in our hearts.”

Karen Carter Richards, publisher of the Houston Forward Times and 1st vice chair of the NNPA, said that she asked Smith to run for 2nd vice chair of the NNPA, this year, because of his vision and talents.

Richards said that she wasn’t surprised when he won the election for the post, because of his infectious personality and great abilities.

“I am devastated. Bernal was my friend and he was a visionary, who was smart, energetic, kind and definitely the future of NNPA,” Richards said.

Richards continued: “His innovative ideas made us click. At the request of Bernal, I flew to Memphis last year to attend his Best in Black Awards

Bernal Smith II Dies at 45

show. He wanted me to recreate the show in Houston and we were going to partner and bring his great awards show to the city of Houston.”

Broadcast executive and Wave newspaper publisher Pluria Marshall said Smith was one of NNPA’s up and coming publishers.

“He was about business,” said Marshall. “He added value when he spoke on issues related to NNPA and his recent election to the executive team was a clear sign of his rising star.”

Marshall added: “He will be sorely missed.”

Hiram Jackson of Real Times Media, who sold Smith the New TriState Defender, called Smith’s pass-

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ing a sad day for the future of the Black Press.

“Bernal Smith represented the future of our industry and he was one of the most innovative publishers I knew and I recognized his gifts immediately,” Jackson said. “I will miss his friendship and his contagious enthusiasm about Black people.”

A graduate of Rhodes College, who also earned a master’s of business administration from Union University, Smith led a local group that purchased the Tri-State Defender from Real Times Media in 2013.

Smith mentored inner-city youth and once served as president of the 100 Black Men of Memphis.

In a joint statement, Denise Rolark Barnes and D. Kevin McNeir, the publisher and the editor of The Washing-

ton Informer, respectively, said that Smith was an integral force in the city of Memphis as the publisher of the Tri-State Defender, where he made issues of economic parity, social justice and the support and encouragement of the Black community his primary concerns.

The statement continued: “Even more, as one of the younger publishers of the NNPA, his enthusiasm and dedication were essential to our overall growth and continued existence. His death leaves a void that will be difficult, if not impossible to fill. But his spirit will live on as will our memories of him—a proud, talented Black man who loved his people and his community and who diligently gave his all each and every day on behalf of the Black Press.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

Ben Jealous, Van Jones Discuss Law Enforcement Reform

by Sean Yoes, Baltimore AFRO Editor

Ben Jealous is campaigning to be the next governor of Maryland, and one of the main planks of his candidacy is law enforcement reform in Baltimore, specifically.

Jealous, the former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was recently campaigning in Baltimore with Van Jones, host of CNN’s, “The Messy Truth,” which focuses on finding common ground between divergent political views. Jones is also author of the new book, “Beyond The Messy Truth,” which examines how we go beyond our differences, political, cultural and otherwise, for the good of the nation.

Jealous and Jones recently spoke to the AFRO about the fight for law enforcement reform in Baltimore City and across the nation. Jealous says he wants to take a more handson approach to repair law enforcement in Baltimore than the man he wants to unseat, Gov. Larry Hogan.

“We have to stop pretending like the governor is irrelevant to the

conversation,” Jealous said. “BPD (Baltimore Police Department) has been a state agency since the Civil War. And, while the mayor and the council have important roles, the governor’s leadership is critical.

When I’m governor we’ll start by doing everything we can simultaneously to bring down violence and rebuild trust, because unless you rebuild trust you will not be able to accelerate bringing down the violence or sustain it.”

Jealous specifically pointed to a crime fighting model that has had great success in reducing violence in the city, yet was on the verge of being eliminated for lack of local government funding.

“And we’ll start by properly funding Safe Streets…aggressively investing in the use of men who have grown up on the streets and kind of aged out of the life, but have the …credibility to squash beefs before they turn into all out wars,” Jealous said. “And we see Safe Streets bring down shootings 80 percent in some areas, we know they can do great work. We need to double, triple, quadruple down on funding that.”

Jealous also alluded to implement-

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ing changes in law enforcement training and re-prioritizing staffing of specific departments of the BPD so that we have a police force “that serves our city rather than divides it,” Jealous said.

Jones, who has officially endorsed Jealous for Maryland governor, spoke to a broader national context for law enforcement reform and the inherent challenges the effort faces in the current political climate.

“Democrats and Republicans were essentially moving in the same direction together for the first time, maybe in two generations,” Jones argued referring to the Obama years. “(They were) moving together in a positive direction for the first time in two generations. And Trump and Sessions just decided to back up over their own party members, as well as communities of color.”

Jealous argues communities of color in Maryland and Baltimore, specifically, that have been underserved is at the root of escalating violence. He described elements of a wraparound strategy: “Creating more jobs—for too long there have been too few; making our public transportation

better to connect people in impoverished areas of the city, to get people to the job centers in the city and the county; and making schools function in the interest of all of our children.”

“Gov. Hogan has made all these things worse; he’s redlined the Redline (the proposed extension to the transit system), he shut down the State Center Project (a project in the heart of the city, which promised hundreds of new jobs for city residents), and created great financial instability in our public schools (Jealous says Hogan has done this with a greater emphasis on charter and private school funding).”

Ultimately, Jones brought the conversation back to Donald Trump and the issue that is perhaps more ubiquitous in our national political discourse than it has been in decades “You have a president who wants to rub the wound of race raw in this country every chance he can get because he has a strategy to use these wedge issues to keep his White base inflamed and on his side,” Jones said.

“That’s not a strategy to solve problems. That’s not a strategy to govern.

That’s just a strategy to acquire power and keep it.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport Invitation for Bid (IFB) Three Tab Roof Replacements at Various Sites Solicitation Number: 093-PD-17-S The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is requesting sealed bids for Roof Replacements at Various Sites. A complete set of the plans and technical specifications will be available on October 23, 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 MANDATORY pre-bid conference will be held at 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604 on November 8, 2017 @ 10:00 a.m., 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 November 20, 2017 @ 3:00 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 December 7, 2017 @ 2:00 PM, to Ms. Caroline Sanchez, Sr. 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.

Experienced Construction Laborer Position requires a minimum of 2 years experience in general construction work. Competitive salary and benefits available. Must hold a current OSHA 10 certificate to apply for job and a current valid CT driver’s license. Position requires taking and passing a drug test/ background check. To apply send resume to TadeMarkLLC@att.net. Women & Minority applicants are encouraged to apply.

Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer

Office or General Help: Immediate opening in the Contract Department, in a fast-paced petroleum environment.

Strong computer skills (ie: Excel, Microsoft Office) and analytical skills a must. Candidate must possess a high level of accuracy, attention to detail and be able to research and work independently. Petroleum and energy industry knowledge experience a plus. Send resume to: Human Resource Dept., P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

**An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**

Public Notice The Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) hereby announces its 49 CFR Part 26 Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) plans related to FAA-assisted contracts for professional services and construction projects for federal fiscal years 2017-2019 for Bradley International and federal fiscal years 2018-2020 for the five General Aviation Airports. The proposed plan, which includes the 3-year goal and rationale, is available for inspection between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday at Bradley International Airport, Administration Office, Terminal A, 3rd Floor, Windsor Locks, CT 06096 or on CAA’s website http://www.ctairports.org, the Bradley International Airport website http://www. bradleyairport.com for 30 days from the date of this publication.

Comments on the DBE goal will be accepted for 45 days from the date of availability of this notice and can be sent to the following: Laurie A. Sirois Manager of Grants, Procurement and Insurance Programs Connecticut Airport Authority Bradley International Airport Administration Office Terminal A, 3rd Floor Windsor Locks, CT 06096 lsirois@ctairports.org

or

Mr. Thomas Knox DBE & ACDBE Compliance Specialist FAA Western-Pacific Regional Office Los Angeles, CA 90009-2007 thomas.knox@faa.gov

TRANSFER STATION LABORER Off load trailers, reload for trans/disp. Lift 50 lbs., operate industrial powered trucks and forklift. Asbestos Worker Handler Training a +. Resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 173 Pickering St., Portland, CT 06480; Fax 860-342-1022; or Email to lkelly@redtransfer.com RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Field Engineer

BA/BS in Civil Engineering or Construction Management.

2-5 yrs. experience. OSHA Certified.

Proficient in reading contract plans and specifications.

Resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 10 Northwood Dr., Bloomfield, CT 06002; Fax 860.218.2433; Email resumes to info@redtechllc.com. RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Project Manager Environmental Remediation Division 3-5 years exp. and Bachelor’s Degree, 40-Hr. Hazwoper Training Req. Forward resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 10 Northwood Dr., Bloomfield, CT 06002;

Fax 860.218.2433; or Email to HR@redtechllc.com

RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

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; Email: HR@redtechllc.com Mail or in person: 173 Pickering Street, Portland, CT 06480. RED Technologies, LLC is An EOE.

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

Mechanical Insulator position.

Insulation company offering good pay and benefits.

Please mail resume to above address.. MAIL ONLY This company is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer.

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT is requesting proposals for the painting of interior vacant units.

Proposal documents can be viewed and printed at www.

norwalkha.org<http://www.norwalkha.org> under the Business section RFP’s/RFQ’s Norwalk Housing is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Curtis O. Law, Executive Director.

Common Ground High School seeks a PART TIME Special Education Teaching Assistant (TA). The TA is responsible for supporting the Special Education teachers in general education and special education classes. Support will include individual and small group instruction, facilitation of on-task behavior, and implementation of students’ IEPs, including accommodations, goals, etc. Click here for more details and how to apply http://commongroundct. org/2017/10/cghs-seeks-a-part-time-special-educationteaching-assistant/.

Wait list Coventry Housing Authority is accepting applications for its Section 8 Elderly/Disabled housing until November 30, 2017. To qualify, you must be either 62 years of age or disabled. Annual income limit is $19,250 (one person) & $22,000 (two people). Interested parties may pick up an application at the Coventry Housing Authority, 1630 Main St., Coventry, CT, or have one mailed. Completed applications must be returned no later than 3 p.m. on November 30, 2017. For more information call 860-742-5518.

Wait list Coventry Housing Authority is accepting applications for its State Elderly/Disabled housing until November 30, 2017. To qualify, you must be either 62 years of age or disabled. Annual income limit is $47,600 (one person) & $54,400 (two people). Interested parties may pick up an application at the Coventry Housing Authority, 1630 Main St., Coventry, CT, or have one mailed. Completed applications must be returned no later than 3 p.m. on November 30, 2017. For more information call 860-742-5518.

Certified Police Officer

The Town of Wallingford is currently accepting applications for current Connecticut P.O.S.T.C Certified Police Officers. Applicants must be active P.O.S.T.C Certified Police Officers in good standing with their current department, or have retired in good standing, still having a current certification status with P.O.S.T.C. This Process will consist of Written, Oral, Polygraph, Psychological, Medical Exam, and Background Investigation.

The Town of Wallingford offers a competitive pay rate $62,753.60$ 74,963.20 annually. Application deadline will be November 9, 2017 Apply: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., Wallingford, CT. phone: (203) 294-2080; fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE.

Listing: Receptionist/Office Assistant

Petroleum Company has an immediate full time opening. Previous experience in a very busy office handling multiple telephone lines and dealing with customers required. Excellent customer service skills a must. Previous petroleum experience a plus. Applicant to also perform administrative/clerical tasks as assigned. Please send resume to: H.R. Manager, Confidential, P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

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training on equipment we operate.

Location: Bloomfield CT THE INNER-CITY Contact: NEWS October 25,Burke 2017 - October 2017 James Phone:31, 860243-2300 email: jim.burke@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer We offer excellent hourly rate & The Town of East Haven excellent benefits The Town of East Haven is currently accepting is currently accepting applications from qualified candidates to participate in the Civil Service Examination for the following positions:

General Clerk Grade Level 10: $39,421/year. Requires a high school diploma or equivalent and 2 years’ experience in office work of a responsible nature. Must be computer literate.

Accountant I: $58,366.44/year.

A Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting plus 2 years of experience required.

Candidates bilingual in Spanish are encouraged to apply. The town offers an excellent benefit package. Applications to participate in the examination are available at The Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven CT or online at http://www.townofeasthavenct.org/civiltest.shtml.

The deadline for submission is November 3, 2107

The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals.

Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven is seeking to fill two full time positions: Vice President for Finance and Operations and Vice President for Development.

Please refer to our website for details:

http://www.cfgnh.org/About/ContactUs/EmploymentOpportunities.aspx EOE

The Glendower Group, Inc

Invitation for Bid Glendower Group Office Renovation The Glendower Group, Inc an affiliate of Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking sealed bids for the Glendower Group Office Renovations. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonsystems. com/gateway beginning on

Wednesday, September 27, 2017 at 3:00PM

The Glendower Group, Inc Request for Qualifications CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AT RISK FOR VALLEY STREET TOWNHOUSE RENTAL ASSISTANCE DEMOSTRATION PROJECT 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 Valley Street Townhouse Rental Assistance Demonstration Project. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at 3:00PM

applications for the following positions:

Firefighter D/Paramedic-Lateral Transfer: Salary- $48,972/year Firefighter/Paramedic-New Recruit: $48,972/year Requirements for both positions and the application is available online at www.FirefighterApp.com/EastHavenFD. East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals. Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

The Town of East Haven is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Union Company seeks: Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Truck and EquipmentConstruction Head Mechanic

Equipment. have a CDL License, Large CT based Fence andMust Guard Rail contractor looking for experienced, self-motivated, responsible Head Mechanic.

Responsibilities will include clean driving record, capable of operating maintaining and repairing all company heavy equipment; beequipment willingand tovehicles, travelupdating asset lists and assuring all rolling stock is in compliance with state and throughout the Northeast & engine, NY. We offer federal regulations. Must have extensive diesel electrical wiring excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits and hydraulic systems experience.

Contact: Dana Top wages paid, company truck and Briere benefits.

Phone: 860-243-2300 Email: AA/EOE dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Please send resume to Mpicard@atlasoutdoor.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

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

Mechanical Insulator position.

Insulation company offering good pay and benefits.

Please mail resume to above address.. MAIL ONLY This company is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer.

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks: Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record.

We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860243-2300 Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

The Manchester Housing Authority is pleased to announce the opening of the State of Connecticut Congregate Housing Program. Westhill Gardens Congregate consists of 37 one bedroom units. Applications are available in person and on the MHA website at http://manchesterha.org and will be accepted by mail or in person at 24 Bluefield Drive Manchester, CT 06040. Applications will be accepted October 1, 2017- December 29th, 2017 at 4PM. The Congregate Program offers housing, a daily meal, and supportive services to frail elders, age 62 or older.

!

FY 2017 State of Connecticut Low-Income (80%) Limit (LIL) 1 person

2 person

3 person

4 person

47,600

54,400

61,200

68,000

The Manchester Housing Authority does not discriminate based upon race, color, disability, familial status, sex, or national origin.

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!

St. Luke’s Sr. Housing, with its Managing Agent DeMarco Management Corporation are pleased to announce that applications are being accepted October 9, 2017 for the St. Luke’s Sr. Housing located at 120 Goffe St., New Haven, CT. We have newly renovated spacious one-bedroom units. Amenities include all new appliances, handicap accessible units and all utilities are included. Applicants must be 62 years of age or older to apply. Income and age 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. **APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED AT THE PROPERTY ON THURSDAYS FROM 9:00 am-1:00 pm. AT THE PROPERTY** Equal Housing Opportunities

El Sr. Housing de St. Luke’s, con su Agente Gerente DeMarco Management Corp., se complace en anunciar que las solicitudes serán aceptadas octubre 9 de 2017 para 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 aplicaciones serán recibidas en Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming Inc DeMarco Management. seeks: Construction Equipment Mechanic Igualdad de Oportunidades

preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory trainingAsphalt on equipment we operate.

Garrity Reclaiming Inc Location: Bloomfield CT seeks: Construction Equipment Mechanic Contact:experienced James Burke Phone: 860preferably in Reclaiming and 243-2300 Road Milling Equipment.

We offer factory email: jim.burke@garrityasphalt.com training on equipment we operate.

Location: Bloomfield CT Women & Minority Applicants are Contact:encouraged James Burke Phone: 860to apply 243-2300 Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity email: jim.burke@garrityasphalt.com Employer We offer excellent hourly rate & Women & Minoritybenefits Applicants are excellent encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

Union Company seeks: Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating Union seeks: Tractor Trailer heavyCompany equipment; be willing to travel Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer Equipment.

Must have a CDL License, excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits clean driving record, capable of operating Contact: Dana Briere Phone: heavy equipment; be willing to travel 860-243-2300 Email: throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com excellent hourly rate & excellent Women & Minority Applicantsbenefits are Contact: Dana Briere Phone: encouraged to apply 860-243-2300 Email: Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Employer Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

What Does It Mean To Be A Young Black Man in Baltimore?

by Karsonya Wise Whitehead Special to the AFRO

On any given day, in the midst of either picking them up or dropping them off, I challenge my sons to think about and wrestle with two questions: what does it mean to be Black and what does it mean to be a young Black man in Baltimore City.

If you were born and raised here then you know what it means to fight for survival, having learned over time that this is a city that experiences incredible moments of joy and of sadness. After years of mourning the countless deaths that have happened around this city, one would think that going forward, the reasons why and the solutions for would simply emerge, that we would not be back at this place again.

It has been a brutally violent year, again with over 275 homicides as of Oct. 11. It has become our new reality as research shows that one out of every 2,000 residents is killed: the majority of which are young and Black who are shot in broad daylight. These are not scary fantasies that play out in the middle of the night, they are happening right before our eyes. They are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, our students

and our neighbors—and we are being called to do something, to say something because silence is not an option.

We are being called to hold up a candle in the middle of a dark city. We are being called to be the ones that we have been waiting for. We are being called to do exactly what the MOMS are doing. Based in Baltimore City, these moms represent a unique group, they are the Mothers of Murdered Sons & Daughters and they consider it their mission to put names and stories behind the numbers and to do active disruption work to change the narrative.

Founded by Daphne Alston, whose son, Tarik Sharif Alston, was fatally shot and killed in 2008, MOMS is an intimate group. They do not recruit, they do not want new members, and when you do join, it is because your life has been forever changed. Meetings are run like support groups, with moms sharing their stories and their memories about their children. They are reminding us that the crime and violence that happens in our neighborhoods is directly connected to a crisis that is happening within this city and within America writ large.

It is clear that much of what deter-

Karsonya Wise Whitehead

mines how young Black men in Baltimore resolve conflict is determined by individuals whose lives are well informed by violence and disparity. Their decision-making has been molded by a context that has been developed in our community’s time worn narratives of pain, suffering, getting by and in many cases, simply getting over.

For these communities, the War on Drugs was personal and resulted in re-

lentless attacks on their community by law enforcement. In so many ways, the purveyors of the war did not realize in a very practical way that for some, selling drugs put food on the table, bought clothes and shoes, kept the water and the heat on and provided bail money. When you couple this reality with redlining, underemployment and unemployment, food desserts and lackluster housing programs, it is easy to understand how this

creates a breeding ground for the type of crime and violence that is happening in communities across the city.

The moms are from some of these communities. They understand the context of this crisis and most importantly, as no other stakeholder in the discussion of homicide, these moms are the most informed about the pain left in a homicide’s wake. They are the ones who have been left behind to heal, to mourn, to march, to protest, to hold candlelight vigils and to speak out and declare that homicide in Baltimore City is a community epidemic and a national health crisis.

They understand that the only way that we can see ourselves beyond the White gaze to a place where our communities are healthy and our children are safe is for us to have the difficult conversations and to do the hard work.

The White gaze does not define us but in the long run, our actions will.

Karsonya Wise Whitehead is an associate professor of communication and African and African American studies at Loyola University Maryland and the host of “Today With Dr. Kaye.” She is the author of “Letters to My Black Sons: Raising Boys in a Post-Racial America.”

Will Stacey Abrams Be America’s First Black Female Governor in U.S. History?

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor

The GOP has held a tight grip on the governor’s mansion in Georgia since 2002, when Sonny Perdue, promising to restore the Confederate battle cross to the state flag, defeated Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes to become the first Republican to hold the position in the Peach State since Reconstruction.

But, a motivated Democrat is looking to change that and shatter a glass ceiling that has never been broken in the United States.

Stacey Abrams, the Georgia state house minority leader, who holds degrees from Spelman College and the Yale School of Law, is seeking to become America’s first Black female governor.

“It’s a very humbling experience to know that, if I win this election, I would have achieved something that Black women, as far back as Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm, have fought for, not necessarily the same job, but transforming how we think about leadership in America,” Abrams said in an interview with the NNPA Newswire. “Physically claiming that mantle of leadership and holding it signals that anything is possible and we can redefine what leadership looks like and who we can lift up.”

Stacey Abrams Abrams, 43, said she’s undaunted by the stranglehold the GOP has had on the governor’s mansion for the past 15 years.

She said Georgia will likely be a majority-minority state in the coming years which provides Democrats more of an opportunity to claim the seat next year.

Abrams noted that Democrats have gained steamed, citing the 2006 race where the party lost by nearly 400,000 votes but significantly closed the gap during the last election in 2014, coming within less than 200,000 votes of

victory.

Four Republicans—Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle; Secretary of State Brian Kemp; State Senator Hunter Hill; and State Senator Michael Williams and two Democrats—Abrams and State Representative Stacey Evans—have declared their candidacy for the post.

The New Georgia Project, a non-partisan voter registration group, that Abrams launched three years ago, may also help her candidacy.

“It’s the single largest voter registration effort in recent memory in Georgia and we have been able to register more than

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200,000 people of color in Georgia to vote,” Abrams said. “I just don’t talk, I have a record that we need to talk about.”

The Guardian reported that, Abrams is “One of six children born to Methodist ministers in Mississippi who later followed their work to Georgia, Abrams’ family struggled to fight off poverty, relying at times on government assistance.”

As a student at Avondale High School, Abrams was hired as a typist for a congressional campaign in high school, where her tweaks to a campaign speech she was typing up were deemed so good she ended up being hired as a speechwriter at 17, The Guardian reported.

And, as she seeks to become the first female Black governor in history, Abrams has already accomplished a series of firsts including being the first person in her immediate family to buy a house and the first to become a lawyer. She also earned the distinction of being the youngest deputy city attorney in Atlanta’s history.

When she ascended to the position of house minority leader, it was the first time that a person of color or a woman had held that job in more than 200 years, according to The Guardian.

Incidentally, her sister, Leslie Abrams, is the first Black woman to become a federal judge in Georgia.

“Georgia is a fast-changing state with de-

mographic parity,” Abrams said. “But, I’m running to be the governor of all Georgians, because all Americans deserve leaders who care about them and who don’t work only for the privileged, but for justice.”

That’s important, because “Poor doesn’t care what color you are,” Abrams said.

With vast experience in the public, private and nonprofit sector, Abrams said she’s poised to lead her state. Abrams said that she has created several small businesses, published eight novels and, one of her latest ventures, was to make sure Black-owned small businesses had access to capital.

Her campaign is based, in part, on a vision that every Georgia resident deserves the freedom and opportunity to thrive, but Abrams said that too many people are being left behind or left out.

Abrams has also pledged to expand pre-kindergarten programs and make technical college education free.

Her vision for Georgia is one she said fosters prosperity where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, not just survive.

“We have the ability to build a stronger, brighter Georgia,” Abrams said. “It is time for transformative leadership, powered by all of us.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 25, 2017 - October 31, 2017

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a month for 24 months

with a 2-year agreement Equipment, taxes and fees extra, and subject to change. See below for details.

Call 1-800-XFINITY, visit your local XFINITY Store or xfinity.com today

Offer ends 10/29/17, and is limited to new residential customers. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. Limited 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 (except XFINITY Mobile) 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. Streaming Netflix subscription required. Internet: xFi requires XFINITY Internet with compatible Wireless Gateway. Best Internet provider based on download speeds measured by 60 million tests taken by consumers at Speedtest.net. Actual speeds vary. Voice: $29.95 activation fee applies. If there is a power outage or network issue, calling, including calls to 911, may be unavailable. Prepaid card offer limited to new customers. Must subscribe to Starter TV (or above), XFINITY postpaid Internet and XFINITY Mobile. Requires porting of phone number. Mobile order required within seven days of Internet installation. Š 2017 Comcast. All rights reserved. DIV17-4-AA-$89x24-A2

Offline_CMCCO17128M1_11.5x21_NED_PD_SPEED_A2_9.25x10.5.indd 1

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10/5/17 5:54 PM