INNER-CITY NEWS

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Senate Lamont FinancialDemocrats Justice a KeyDeliver Focus atBad 2016News NAACPTo Convention INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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Volume 27 . No. 2359 Volume 21 No. 2194

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“DMC” Hits The Big Time Team Digs In On Artists, Libraries

Lizzy Donius, who currently leads the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA), is one of the members of the transition team dedicated to arts, museums and libraries.

PAUL BASS PHOTO Outlaw leading a support group for ex-offenders.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Senate Democrats Deliver Bad News To Lamont

by Christine Stuart Ct. News Junkie

HARTFORD, CT — Behind closed doors Wednesday, the Senate Democratic caucus politely told Gov. Ned Lamont that they couldn’t vote in favor of his $21-billion transportation plan if it included tolls.

But the message may not have been that clear.

“We did not take an actual headcount in the caucus on who was where,” Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said.

So are tolls dead for now?

“We don’t want to draw a conclusion on it yet,” Looney said after the two-hour meeting.

Lamont exited the two-hour meeting and said he told the Senators he knew he was asking them to “cast a tough vote,” but that his plan was a good plan.

“The governor did say he was going to reflect on what he heard and was going to consider some alternatives,” Looney said.

Looney wouldn’t officially say that the plan, including 14 tolls to fund work at specific chokepoint locations around the state, was dead. He’s waiting on Lamont to react to what he heard Wednesday in the caucus.

As Lamont exited the caucus, he said the Senators told him there’s “some political

issues here” — a handful of Senators are concerned about their re-election bids in 2020 if they vote for a plan that includes tolls.

“I’ve gotta convince some people who have great distrust of government that this is the best investment we can make to get this state growing again,” Lamont said.

He said he told them he’s sorry he’s asking them to cast a hard vote.

“I know we’d all love to put this off,” Lamont said. “I’ve got a plan on the table if anyone has an alternative, speak now.”

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said what happened today was that there was agreement that something needed to be done about Connecticut’s crumbling transportation infrastructure.

“There isn’t full agreement on funding at the moment and the governor’s going to reflect today on what he heard on caucus,” Duff said.

As far as financing is concerned, “If there is a will to find alternatives, they will be found,” Looney said.

Looney has suggested legalizing both recreational marijuana and sports betting could create revenue streams that the state could dedicate to transportation, even though that revenue would be unable to unlock the low-interest rate loans from the

U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau.

Lamont had planned to use the 14 tolls as the revenue stream to secure the lowinterest loans.

Looney said they didn’t discuss any particulars Wednesday about what alternative revenue streams they could use instead of tolls.

“There was a general acknowledgement there are other approaches that could be taken,” Looney said.

What’s the timetable?

“We are generally of the opinion that we do want to get this done as soon as possible,” Looney said. “And we want to move onto other issues for the 2020 session ... and not have this issue as a cloud over everything else that we do.”

But he also said he wants to address the issue.

There’s no date by which Lamont plans to return to the Senate Democratic caucus with a revised plan.

Lamont said he wants to collaborate on a path forward in a way that’s responsible and minimizes the impact on Connecticut taxpayers.

Patrick Sasser, one of the founders of a group called No Tolls CT, was at the state Capitol Wednesday.

CHRISTINE STUART / CTNEWSJUNKIE FILE PHOTO

Senate President Martin Looney and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff He said he’s waiting for Republican Senate Leader Len Fasano to come up with an alternative that doesn’t include tolls.

He said he doesn’t want to have to spend the next year finding candidates to run

against any state representative or senator who votes in favor of tolls.

He said it’s much bigger than tolls. He said Connecticut residents are just fed up with the amount of taxes they pay.

Mortgage Lender In Long Fight With State Banking Is Closing, CEO Says

by Shawn R. Beals Ct. News Junkie

EAST HARTFORD, CT—A mortgage firm locked in a long battle with the state Banking Department is closing for good, the company’s CEO announced Thursday.

1st Alliance Lending is wrapping up its operations within the next month, and its remaining few staff members, down from 170 at the company’s peak, are working on the last details of discontinuing the business.

CEO John DiIorio said he puts the blame for the business closing entirely on the state, which is seeking a $1.5 million penalty in a license revocation case that has been pending for about a year and a half.

The state has claimed that 1st Alliance misled consumers through its use of call center employees, who are alleged to have performed tasks that require licenses.

“1st Alliance is dead. There is no path forward for this company,” DiIorio said.

“We have worked very hard and in good faith with both the banking department and the DECD to find a path forward, and it simply can’t be done.”

The state says those call center workers in the mortgage pre-approval process were performing duties that require state licenses, like negotiating terms of a loan. But 1st Alliance says they did not have any role in the approval process, and could not have been confused with a decision-maker.

“Most of our bureaucrats are very honest, hard-working people. I think they’re here to serve the people that live in this state, and I think they get a bad rap 90 percent of

SHAWN BEALS / CTNEWSJUNKIE PHOTO 1st Alliance CEO John DiIorio

DAN HAAR / HEARST CONNECTICUT MEDIA John DiIorio raising an objection at the 6th day if

hearings for his firm at the state Department of Banking Thursday. Standing is Stacey Serrano, the department lawyer trying the case.

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the time,” DiIorio sad. “Unfortunately this company ran into a few bad apples who have acted in bad faith from the day they got here and lied about their purpose.”

Hearings on 1st Alliance’s case have been going sporadically since September on enforcement the banking department began late last year. DiIorio attended another hearing session Thursday, where he would begin representing the company on his own rather than continue using dwindling resources to pay attorneys to attend the hearings. DiIorio is still using the attorneys, but he’s not making them attend the hearings.

DiIorio said he no longer has a job with his company closing, and that he is devoting all of his time to fighting to retain the company’s reputation.

He said he will also work on starting a new company in New Hampshire, Massachusetts or Rhode Island next year.

“We will see this through and we will come back,” he said.

1st Alliance has no active licenses, and its dozen remaining staff members were informed Oct. 31 that they would no longer be kept on with the hope of resuming operations at a later date.

Banking Department spokesman Matthew Smith said Thursday that the company closing has no impact on the ongoing hearing. Before Thursday there had been a handful of hearing days with the state interviewing just one witness, the department’s primary examiner in the 1st Alliance case.

He said the attorney for the Banking De-

partment has shown that the screeners working for 1st Alliance were performing credit checks and doing duties that could be considered negotiating loan terms.

“We believe that’s taking an application.

Under Connecticut law you need a license to conduct that kind of activity,” Smith said.

Most enforcement cases the Banking Department brings are resolved through settlements, so the ongoing hearing process is unusual. After the administrative hearings, which are conducted by a hearing officer appointed by the department, a decision can be appealed in Superior Court.

The case began with what the state calls a whistleblower complaint last year. Examiners conducted interviews with 1st Alliance staff, and settlement talks in July 2018 broke down before the state issued a notice of its intent to revoke the company’s license at the end of 2018.

“The Department will continue to work toward a fair resolution of the allegations against 1st Alliance but must ensure that companies doing business in Connecticut play by the same rules,” Smith said in a statement Thursday.

1st Alliance had received a $3.5 million incentive package from the state Department of Community and Economic Development toward the relocation of its call center to a vacant building in Putnam.

About $2 million of the funding was returned, and the remaining $1.5 million has been converted into a loan, but DiIorio said the company has no ability to pay it back.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Legal Aid Lobbies Alders On Lead Paint, Alleges Civil Rights Harm

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven I ndependent

Legal aid lawyers took two new steps to try to persuade the courts and the local legislature that the city has been, is, and plans to continue staying in the wrong lane when it comes to its lax enforcement of local lead paint laws.

They filed an amendment to a class-action complaint that now accuses the city of violating the civil rights of predominantly black and Hispanic children. And they lobbied members of the Board of Alders to vote against a new, weakened version of the city statute slated to come up for a vote in early December.

Lawyers from the New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) took those steps Monday afternoon and evening in the legal advocacy group’s latest efforts to pressure the city to follow existing local law. The current law requires the Health Department to inspect and order lead hazard abatements for all residences housing children who have tested above the local lead poisoning threshold of 5 micrograms per deciliter (μg/dL).

The alders have scheduled a Dec. 2 vote on a proposed new, weaker version of the city’s lead laws, which clarifies actionable blood lead levels but grants new discretion to the Health Department director on when and how to act on them.

In anticipation of that vote, NHLAA Director of Litigation Shelley White and staff attorney Amy Marx joined former legal aid board President Beverly Hodgson, legal aid attorneys Amy Eppler-Epstein and Yoni Zamir, and legal aid fellow

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Legal aid attorney Amy Marx (right) lobbies Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate Monday night.

Melissa Marichal on the second floor of City Hall before, during, and after a full Board of Alders meeting Monday night.

They pulled individual local legislators aside into one-on-one conversations in the building’s hallways and in the back of the Aldermanic Chambers as they made their pitches as to why they think the alders should vote down the lead law change.

They handed out a one-pager bearing the title “Proposed Ordinance to Weaken Protections for Children with Lead Poi-

soning”. They shared letters submitted by city housing authority Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton, Center for Children’s Advocacy staff attorney Alice Rosenthal, and Fair Haven Community Healthcare primary care provider Amanda DeCew all calling for a delay on an aldermanic vote.

“The City has stated in testimony that it seeks to loosen the protections for children to save money,” reads the legal aid one-pager on the proposed new law. “This is immoral and will cost our city more in

the long-run in terms of such things as medical expenses and special education.”

An alder committee recently voted in favor the law. Alders agreed with Harp administration officials that the new version of the law wouldn’t “weaken” it, but rather acknowledge reality: They say the city lacks the resources to catch up with all violations, so it needs the flexibility to prioritize. Legal aid is pushing to improve how the health department enforces the law to have all children covered instead.

(In one court hearing, the city admitted

that for years it was avoiding computers and trying to keep track of lead-paint cases by hand.)

In the courts, White and Marx made their next move in the class action case Nyriel Smith v. City of New Haven by filing an amended complaint Monday afternoon that argues that the city’s lax enforcement of local lead laws from Nov. 2018 on has had a disproportionate impact on local black and Hispanic children.

That’s because those children are more likely than white children to already be lead poisoned, according to legal aid’s analysis of available local public health data.

The legal aid attorneys also argue that black and Hispanic children are more likely than white children to live in rental housing built before 1978, which is when federal law finally prohibited the use of lead-based residential paint.

“Defendants’ policy disproportionately impacts such children by failing to ensure that Black and Hispanic children are protected from the likely source of their lead paint poisoning and the irreversible neurological damage caused by such poisoning,” the amended complaint reads.

White and Marx contend in particular that the city is in violation of Count 6(B) of Connecticut’s Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing rental or sale discrimination against any person due to a learning, physical, or mental disability.

The amended complaint notes that, according to the most recent publicly available statistics from the Connecticut De Con’t on page 22

Hartford Residents Claim Victory Against ‘Slumlords’ In City’s New Housing Codes

By NICOLE LEONARD Ct. News Junkie

At the Urban Hope Refuge Church in the North End of Hartford, residents and activists celebrated the city’s new housing codes, which they hope will hold landlords and owners more accountable.

“The new code will not only prevent slumlords from continuing to make money off horrendous and inhumane living conditions they create for residents,” said Joshua Serrano, “but also lift the corporate veil, of which many slumlords hide.”

Serrano was among former residents of the now-defunct Barbour Gardens, an apartment complex that offered low-income housing units. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development earlier this year severed a $750,000-a-year Section 8 housing contract with the landlord after inspectors found that the building had “major threats to health and safety.”

Residents relocated to other housing units in and around Hartford. The city tried to bring the New York-based landlord to court for neglect and safety violations.

Similar events had previously played out at other affordable housing complexes in Hartford, including Clay Arsenal Renaissance and Infill apartment complexes. It

was enough to motivate residents, activists, local organizations and legislators to demand changes and take aim at what they called “slumlords.”

“We recognized that there were weaknesses in our housing code, a code that hadn’t been updated or overhauled in decades,” said Mayor Luke Bronin.

City officials said the new housing codes close municipal loopholes, create greater accountability and better enforce existing rules.

As an example of stricter regulations under the new codes, the city will now require the names of every owner, operator and member of a corporation or limited liability company that owns housing complexes.

Out-of-town owners will need to have a residential address registered with the city and provide copies of their driver’s license or other identification. Housing advocates said this will increase transparency for the residents and better help officials identify who is responsible for attending to living conditions at housing complexes.

“Creating more effective tools would help us promote responsible landlords who want what’s best for the community,” Bronin said, “and allow us to hold accountable those who are just trying to extract wealth

without investing, without creating the kind of housing conditions that our community deserves.”

Some of the new housing codes will go into effect immediately while others will be phased in over the course of about four years.

Milagros Ortiz is part of the leadership team of tenants who have been bringing community housing issues to the attention of state and city legislators. She said she hopes the new changes will spare others from living through what her family did.

“My apartment was infested with mice and my daughter was afraid to sleep at night,” Ortiz said. “Not a single window in my apartment fit the frame. Cold air flowed through my apartment in the winter months.”

The most important part now, said Greater Hartford Legal Aid housing attorney Cecil Thomas, is making sure the new codes are carried out.

“As we celebrate this victory, I also know that we are not done,” he said. “The new Hartford housing code is only so many words on a piece of paper without the resources, staffing and modernization to make sure that it is effectively enforced.”

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Milagros Ortiz, former resident of Clay Arsenal Renaissance apartment complex, celebrates changes to Hartford's housing codes at Urban Hope Refuge Church, Wed., Nov. 13, 2019. NICOLE LEONARD / CONNECTICUT PUBLIC RADIO

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Presented by Comcast Business in New Haven After Ten Years with Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz and Mayor Toni Harp

Greater New Haven Chamber & Quinnipiac Chambers of Commerce Host Big Connect Business Expo

The Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce (GNHCC), will host The Big Connect, Connecticut’s premier business expo, presented by Comcast Business on Thursday, November 21st from 7:00 a.m.

– 6:00 p.m. The large scale business expo returns to downtown New Haven after ten years and will take place at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale. The full day expo features educational seminars and key note speakers who focus on strategic networking, business development topics, the latest digital and social trends, tips and strategies about building business partnerships, as well as over 60 exhibitors. Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz and Mayor Toni Harp are confirmed to attend.

Top attractions include the 3rd annual Nonprofit Stars Align Awards Breakfast, presented by Mutual of America, The Big

Taste, which offers a sampling of Greater New Haven’s restaurants, and the Big Bash networking happy hour, presented by Foxwoods Resort & Casino. Admission to The Big Connect is free.

Featured speakers include U.S. Olympian and legendary athlete, Kristine Lilly, Economic Development Leader & Capital Funds Expert, Anthony Price, and Serial Entrepreneur and Founder of District New Haven, David Salinas. Additional speakers James Dowd, Robbie Samuels, Sandra Long, and Paolo Romanacci will discuss an array of topics, including developing meaningful networking connections, teamwork, business capital, digital marketing, and more. “We are excited to host The Big Connect in downtown New Haven this year.” commented Garrett Sheehan, President and CEO of Greater New Haven and Quinni-

piac Chambers of Commerce. Sheehan continued, “We invite all members of the business community to come to the workshops and visit the businesses exhibiting at the expo.”

The 2019 Big Connect is made possible by its generous sponsors: Presenting Sponsor: Comcast Business; Additional sponsors: ConnectiCare, WTNH News 8, New Haven Register, Hearst Connecticut Media Group, Foxwoods Resort & Casino, United Illuminating, CoForge, New Haven Biz, Southern Connecticut State University’s School of Business, Girl Scouts of Connecticut, Mutual of America, AMS Practice Management, LLC, IQ Telecom Intelligence, Corporate Display Systems, Red Rock Branding, Connecticut Public / NPR, Inner City News, Town Fair Tire, Hy’s Limousine, IKEA, Shubert Theater,

Fortress Fiduciary, Connecticut Magazine, Headline Productions, iHeart Media, O & Co. Media, Access Audio Visual, SphereGen Technologies, and Pinpoint Promotions.

Admission is free to all programs, excluding The Big Taste which costs $20.00 and pre-registration is required. To register and learn more, visit www.gnhccexpo.com. Attendees can download an app to guide them throughout the day.

GNHCC continues to celebrate 225 years of serving the Greater New Haven region and the business community. “Celebrate the Foundation of our Future” is the Chamber’s tagline for the 225th Anniversary year and a call to action for the business community to rally around a vision of equitable economic growth and prosperity for all.

NEW HAVEN NAMED CT’S TOP ‘STEM’ CITY WITH, ‘EXCEPTIONAL DEDICATION TO… ADVANCEMENTS’

New Haven – The state’s second most populous city is the state’s leading STEM city and winner of a 2019 Top STEM City Award based upon, ‘it’s exceptional dedication to advancements in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).’

That first-place award, from Insurify – an insurance quotes comparison site – was identified through a combined analysis of secondary and post-secondary education, professions, and diversity in STEM. “New Haven’s commitment to STEMrelated disciplines is reflected in several

years-in-the-works projects like ESUMS, the Bioscience Career Ladder and Tech Career Ladder, the District, and the Ives Squared makerspace and Technology Center at the Ives Main Branch of the library,” Mayor Toni N. Harp said. “My administration made technology preparedness a priority – it’s gratifying to see those efforts recognized and acknowledged.”

In Connecticut, New Haven topped the list of STEM cities based upon these criteria: proportion of residents in STEM-based careers, the high schools, colleges, and

graduate schools with the best programs in STEM, by state, and cities with the highest rate of diversity in STEM. “Not only does STEM play an integral role in all aspects of life, but also, it has shifted priorities in education,” Insurify said in its announcement of New Haven’s top ranking. “Scholars and teachers alike emphasize the importance of an education in science, math, and engineering, and in colleges across the country, students tend to gravitate increasingly towards degrees in STEM-related fields.”

“Research at private companies, government institutions, and universities has continued to shape and improve our lives, from breakthroughs in medicine to rideshare apps to an ever-growing wealth of accessible information on the internet,” Insurify added.

Insurify named its top STEM city in each state; in doing so, New Haven is featured alongside these other technology-oriented cities: Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

A Most Unlikely Politician: Presentation on Wilbur Cross at New Haven Museum

To many, Wilbur Cross is known only for a landscaped parkway or a building on the UConn campus. Attorney and author Justin Zaremby will introduce us to the lesserknown Cross—a scholar and unlikely politician—in “The Education of Wilbur Cross, Connecticut Yankee” at the New Haven Museum on Thursday December 5, 2019 at 6:00 p.m., following the museum’s annual meeting. Admission is free.

The presentation will be based on Cross’s recently reprinted autobiography, “Connecticut Yankee,” for which Zaremby penned the foreword. The work is a compelling account of Cross’s life, from a childhood in the bucolic town of Mansfield, through the halls of learning at Yale University, to the highest office in Connecticut, which, to Zaremby, “feels like a combination of a memoir and a novel.”

At the time he ran for governor, Cross was a noted author and literary critic who had been a professor of English, editor of the “Yale Review,” and Dean of the Yale Graduate School. His whimsical character and poetic sensibility seemed at odds with the cut-throat world of state politics. Yet it was that disarmingly folksy demeanor and inquisitive intelligence that helped him make a mark on Connecticut politics. During his time as governor—the hardest years of the Depression—he worked to implement Roosevelt’s New Deal; fought for the abolition of child labor; instituted a mini-

mum wage; improved working conditions in factories and guided the state’s recovery from the devastation of the Great New England Hurricane.

Zaremby argues that Wilbur Cross is a fascinating figure whose legacy remains vibrant in the state and New Haven. “He experienced moments of tremendous change in the nation and the state, and lived multiple lives—as a teacher, a scholar, and a politician,” Zaremby says, “I’ve always been interested in how he tied together his academic and political lives.”

He adds that writing the introduction

to “Connecticut Yankee” gave him the chance to explore how Cross understood the course of his life and the evolution of higher education and the state in the early 20th century. His presentation will explore Cross’s life and achievements but will also consider Cross as a writer.

The book is published by City Point Press and will be available for sale. A reception with Justin Zaremby and Publisher David Wilk will follow the talk.

About Justin Zaremby Zaremby is a practicing lawyer at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP in New

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York, where he represents a range of public charities and private foundations, including universities, museums, and other tax-exempt entities on a variety of matters including corporate governance, charitable giving, program-related investing, and international grant making. He is the author of “Legal Realism and American Law” (Bloomsbury, 2014) and “Directed Studies and the Evolution of American General Education” (Yale University, 2006), and has published articles and book reviews in numerous journals including the “Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities,” the “Rutgers Law Review,” and “The New Criterion.” He graduated from Yale University, from which he received his B.A., Ph.D., and J.D., and divides his time between New York and New Haven.

About the New Haven Museum The New Haven Museum, founded in 1862 as the New Haven Colony Historical Society, is located in downtown New Haven at 114 Whitney Avenue. The Museum collects, preserves and interprets the history and heritage of Greater New Haven and through its collections, exhibitions, programs and outreach brings more than 375 years of the Elm City’s history to life. For more information visit www.newhavenmuseum.org or facebook.com/NewHavenMuseum or call 203-562-4183.

John P. Thomas Publisher / CEO

Babz Rawls Ivy

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

Advertising/Sales Team 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

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

Memberships

National Association of Black Journalist National Newspapers Publishers Association Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Greater New Haven Business & Professional Association Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Racially Discriminatory Legislation and Policies Must Be Stopped The Unintended Consequences of a Menthol Cigarette Ban to Black America From pro-slavery laws to Jim Crow, to Prohibition, to racial profiling, to Stop-and-Frisk, history is clear: racist laws and discriminatory bans have been devastating for Black America.

Today, Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) and National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) have joined together with other African-American law enforcement executives to call on you - our readers in Black communities across the nation - to see the warning signs of yet another proposed racially discriminatory law: the menthol cigarette ban.

It is a well-known fact that over 85 percent of African Americans who smoke prefer menthol cigarettes. There is no factual basis to assert that a menthol cigarette ban will stop African Americans from smoking. In fact, the unintended consequences of such a racially-discriminatory ban will set the stage for more negative and more likely counterproductive interactions between law enforcement and African Americans.

While proponents argue that a menthol cigarette ban could encourage menthol cigarette smokers to quit smoking coldturkey, another possible outcome could be extremely dangerous—the creation of an illicit market. If this happens, illegal sales of menthol cigarettes will likely be concentrated in communities of color, leading to a greater police presence, citations, fines, and arrests for selling a product that for the past 50 years has been legal.

Possible bans on menthol cigarettes are now being considered throughout the United States as add-ons to e-cigarette bans. It must be said that while FDA has deemed teen vaping an “epidemic,” there is no teen menthol cigarette epidemic.

The fact is teen cigarette use has steadily been on the decline over the past decade.

Recently in New York, the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner courageously issued a public statement warning against the consequences of a proposed menthol cigarette ban. Sybrina Fulton and Gwendolyn Carr stated, “When you ban a product sold mostly in Black communities, you must consider the reality of what will happen to that very same over-represented community in the criminal justice system.”

Law enforcement leaders like Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), Grand Council of Guardians, and National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NABLEO) have stated countless times that a ban on menthol cigarettes will have unintended negative consequences, especially for African Americans.

Over the past 30 years, we have reduced tobacco consumption overall across this country by about 40 percent. And we did not do that with the criminal justice community. We did that with education, we did it with treatment, we did it from a health and educational perspective. Let’s continue with that. Let’s not do something that’s going to end up with these unintended consequences of increasing interaction between police and community members.

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP): “I dedicated 34 years of my life to public safety, enforcing the laws that our legislators placed before me. That’s what cops do, and we trust that those laws are well thought out, studied and based upon sound data and evidence. As we begin to mirror the days of alcohol prohibition with tobacco bans, expect the violence and corruption that comes with the illicit market and add something else, the over criminalization of the black community.”

Jiles Ship, President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives – New Jersey (NOBLE): “Banning menthol cigarettes would be a 21st Century attempt at Prohibition, a past failure of government to restrict a previously legal product. As we learned with Prohibition, every time the government tries to ban something, it seems to cause other problems. And unfortunately, a menthol cigarette ban would be another example of government action that disproportionately disrupts the Black community.”

Charles Billips, National Chair Person of Grand Council of Guardians, “The first question I asked is how are they going to implement this ban on menthol cigarettes, knowing that a large number of Black and Brown people smoke menthol cigarettes? It would be best to educate the communities on the affect it has on our health instead of a ban enforced through Law Enforcement.”

As The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once prophetically said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” And the right thing to do for our families and communities and for all who stand for freedom, justice and equality is to speak out against all forms of racial discrimination and disproportionate law enforcement, as well as the systems, laws, bans and policies that perpetuate them.

Speak out against racism. Stand up against discrimination. Let your voices be heard.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Elicker Transition Team Digs In On Artists, Libraries

by Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper www.newhavenarts.org

Imagine a local artist is contracted by New Haven’s Public Works Department.

In her first few months on the job, she gets to know all of the city’s trash collectors by name. She installs huge sculptures made of garbage to get residents talking. She choreographs a ballet of snow plows just as it starts to get cold. She talks to community management teams about what isn’t working, and brings it back to City Hall.

Suddenly, the mayoral administration streamlines the street sweeping process.

Complaints go down on snow removal and tagged and towed cars. And that earlymorning garbage collection doesn’t feel so mystifying anymore.

That cultural collaboration was just one of the ideas floated Saturday morning at High School in the Community, as over 200 New Haveners packed the school’s cafeteria for an input meeting with Mayor-elect Justin Elicker’s Transition Team. Facilitated by Kia Levey-Burden and Elizabeth Nearing, the meeting followed a call for increased transparency, community input and open communication that became a common refrain in Elicker’s 2019 mayoral campaign.

A second meeting is scheduled for Sunday Dec. 8 at 2 p.m., also at High School in the Community. New Haveners wishing to reach out before then can contact transition@JustinElicker.com.

“We’re so excited that there are so many people here to give feedback and input, and I think it’s a real indication of what I heard knocking on doors around this city,” Elicker said at the beginning of the meeting. “That people want more of a voice in the way that our city is headed. ” “This transition process should be happening all of the time, not just a month and a half [before January 2020] but on an ongoing basis,” he later added. “It may take different forms along the way, but the spirit is inclusion, the spirit is giving people a voice in the way that this city is run. And I feel like today is an indication that we’re taking a really strong step in that direction.“ Among calls for stronger schools, minority teacher recruitment and retention, affordable housing, independent business development, and official sanctuary city status, arts and culture became one potential through line, with a framework that could work to increase communication among city departments, prioritize local artists, and grow the city’s creative economy.

It comes as Elicker works on appointing a new director to the Division of Arts, Culture and Tourism, a position that has been vacant since the passing of arts czar Andy Wolf in July. In the meantime, cultural advocate Lizzy Donius, head of the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance, has become a member of his transition team supervising arts, culture, and libraries.

Saturday, Donius welcomed arts leaders, library staff, and cultural enthusiasts to a single table (education, by comparison, attracted two tables and a third largely populated by current students), listening for con-

matched only by a brainstorming session dedicated to city government and climate.

While several participants lauded paid apprenticeship programs at Artspace New Haven and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, there was no mention of youth programming that Kim Harris has started almost single-handedly in Newhallville, or that Chaz Carmon has grown with Ice The Beef in Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills. Under Mayor Toni Harp, several city commissions have gone to older, white, male artists who live and pay taxes outside of New Haven, but are making large scale work about people of color in the city.

“How can the city function better for artists?” Donius asked.

Mayor-elect Elicker: "People want more of a voice in the way that our city is headed. ”

Kim Harris, who leads New Haven's One City Initiative and the Harris-Tucker School in Newhallville, is a member of the transition team and chair of Newhallville's Community Management Team.

Throughout the meeting, she called for an acute need for unity in the city.

Aicha Woods and Mona Berman, director of Mona Berman Fine Arts.

cerns, new proposals and suggestions that she can bring back to the transition team.

Even before attendees spoke, the table reflected one area that the Elicker administration may need to work on: the overwhelming whiteness of arts organizations in a city

populated with Black and Brown artists who are looking for work, and frequently passed over for commissions, performances, and mentorship programs. In an otherwise diverse room, the table attracted no participants of color, its melanin deficiency

6

One way, suggested longtime New Haven cheerleader and Beinecke Library Communications Director Michael Morand, is to support the New Haven Free Public Library when the city budget is good— and when it isn’t. A board member for the NHFPL Foundation, Morand noted that the library is often the first public institution on the chopping block when the city is struggling to balance its budget. That’s despite the fact that it has become a safe haven, warming and cooling center, and social services hub open to the community six days a week, with outposts in five New Haven neighborhoods.

“Historically, when things are going well, it’s nice to have,” he said. “And then when things aren’t going so well, it’s the first to get cut.”

John Jessen, acting director at the New Haven Free Public Library, pointed to the fact that a lot of people don’t know that the arts are a strong economic provider for both practicing artists, art makers, and arts administrators and consumers. Last year, arts and culture raised $9 billion is in the state of Connecticut, providing 57,000 jobs. It constituted five percent of the state’s economy. Do New Haveners have any sense of that, he asked?

Others mined the potential that the arts— and local artists—have to spread information between city departments, alders, and the residents they serve. Helen Kauder, executive director at Artspace New Haven, referenced the work of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who has been an artist in residence with the New York Department of Sanitation since 1976. In that time, Ukeles has brought attention to the work of the department with large-scale installation, a yearlong performance that involved shaking the hand of every sanitation worker, and choreographing dances that involved sanitation vehicles.

Both Donius and Aicha Woods, director of the City Plan Department, jumped on the idea, noting that it could be a template for city departments to engage the public on climate change, public health, and immigration policy—while also compensating artists and creating opportunities for young people. Woods added that putting artists in city departments is a no-brainer for her, particularly in a city that currently has no design framework in zoning appeals and

plans for public space.

“We can use arts to help solve a key part of how messages get out to the public,” she said. “People trust the arts.”

“This isn’t just arts as we’re thinking about art,” added Daniel Fitzmaurice, executive director of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. “Food is part of this. Dancing casually is part of this. The end goal is to connect people together … this can be as expansive as we imagine it being.”

It’s a suggestion that already has precedent in the city, sometimes reaching back decades. In the 1990s, Rafael Ramos launched Bregamos Community Theater with a goal of teaching public health and social justice through the dramatic arts (his first play, performed at BAR, was a bilingual comedy about cervical cancer that taught women what symptoms to look for and debunked medical myths). In early 2016, members of Unidad Latina en Acción worked with Mayor Toni Harp to use short plays as a form of “know your rights” training as the city braced for immigration raids.

In March, a student at the Yale School of Public Health wrote a play to advocate for emergency service workers, bringing their low wages, battles with addiction, and vicarious trauma very much into plain view.

Lots of Fish is teaching New Haveners watershed protection through storm drain art, and has recently gotten city support to help it. Jessen pointed to a poster contest that the NHFPL is currently running, with the hope that local artists can help get the word out about the 2020 census.

Together, those ideas multiplied into a potential arts equity framework, under which city funding to artists and arts organizations would be contingent on the racial and socioeconomic diversity of their staffs, boards, and audiences, and members of the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission would better reflect all of the city’s neighborhoods. It has a model at the state level, where the Connecticut Office of the Arts evaluates applications for grant funding on their relative relevance, equity, access, diversity and inclusion (READI).

It’s also a mantle that other cities around the country have already taken up. This month, Chicago announced that it would increase arts funding to under-resourced neighborhoods by hundreds of thousands of dollars. In summer 2019, Boston finalized and rolled out a revised 10-year cultural plan that includes working with community members and neighborhood activists to sculpt a municipal cultural footprint. Models focused on equity in the arts have dropped in cities from New York to Dallas to Akron.

Moran, who has served as a downtown alder and been a longtime cultural advocate in the city, added that New Haven needs a cultural plan that binds equity and inclusion with a need for cross-regional programming. He praised Kauder for including a letter from the mayors of New Haven, West Haven, and Hamden in Artspace’s month-spanning brochure for City-Wide Open Studios, acknowledging that “art is

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Controversial Recovery Center Advances

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven I ndependent

A community health center’s plans to build a $20 million, 52-bed in-patient addiction recovery center in the Hill won a key approval after an impassioned, divided vote that saw two neighborhood alders argue that the area is already oversaturated with social services.

The Board of Alders took that vote Monday evening during its latest full board meeting in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

Alders voted 13-6, with three abstentions, in support of the city’s Livable City Initiative (LCI) selling two publicly-owned parcels at 649 and 659 Howard Ave. to Cornell Scott Hill Health Center for a combined sum of $125,000.

The vote was the latest chapter in a saga that has pitted two public-policy quests against each other: One to address rising, deadly drug addiction, which affects all sectors of society; the other to stabilize lower-income neighborhoods where social services like treatment centers are already concentrated, sometimes bringing with them attendant crime.

Hill Health needs the two parcels in order to build a new addiction recovery center to include behavioral health services like therapy and yoga and not medication-assisted treatment like methadone — on land it already owns at 232-236 Cedar St. The two parcels, at the corner of Howard and Minor, would provide essential parking and access to the planned new building.

The site of the proposed new building

is immediately adjacent to Hill Health’s South Central Rehabilitation Center, which already does provide methadone treatment to patients struggling with addiction.

Hill neighbors, who observed the vote, vowed to keep fighting as the plan proceeds to consideration of two more needed regulatory approvals.

Two Hill Alders, Ward 3’s Ron Hurt and Ward 4’s Evelyn Rodriguez, addressed their colleagues from the floor Monday night to voice their opposition to the Hill Health project. They said that their constituents a half dozen of whom attended Monday night’s meeting in person have reminded them again and again that the Hill already has a surfeit of substance abuse treatment programs, and that the proposed site is within just a few blocks of Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy, the Boys & Girls Club, and Lulac Head Start.

“There’s many things that our community is lacking,” said Hurt, who initially supported the project before changing course after neighbors criticized him for not first running the health center’s plans by the community management team. “Another center for recovery is not what we need.”

Hill Health has been a good neighbor in Ward 3 and elsewhere in the community, he Hurt acknowledged. But, he said, he and his constituents simply cannot tolerate having an addiction treatment center within such close proximity of where an estimated 1,000 children pass through every day.

“I’m opposing this because of the quality of life” impact it might have on Hill

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Hill opponents Calvin Counsel, Leslie Radcliffe, Maxine Harris, How-

ard Boyd, and Miguel Pittman observe the vote.

residents, Rodriguez added. “We have had enough.”

She pointed out that Congress Avenue neighbors have struggled for years with patients from the APT Foundation — a controversial methadone clinic right across from John C. Daniels School — loitering on the sidewalks, getting into (sometimes fatal) fights, and doing drugs outside the clinic.

While Hill Health has not had and does not have the same problems with its patient base, Rodriguez said, building another addiction recovery center near a different school is tempting fate.

“Are we going to take that chance?” she asked.

Hurt and Rodriguez weren’t the only alders to vote against the project. They were joined by Wooster Square Alder Brenda Harris, Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes, Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, and West Rock/West Hills Alder Michelle Sepulveda.

Hill Alder Dave Reyes and Fair Haven Alders Ernie Santiago and Jose Crespo all abstained from voting, Reyes said he decided not to cast a vote because the Hill Health project is slated to receive state bond funding, and he works for an area of

state government that helps decide where such bonding is directed. Santiago said he abstained because his wife works for Hill Health.

Not every Hill alder stood up to oppose the project, however.

Hill/City Point Alder Dolores Colon, who is retiring from the board at the end of this year after nearly two decades on the local legislature, said that she has never heard of any problematic incident ever taking place outside of Hill Health’s current methadone clinic, right next to the site of the proposed new center. Hill Health has always been a good neighbor to the Hill, she said, and this project appears to be a responsible one.

“This is not the APT Foundation,” she said.

Colon proposed, and the alders unanimously adopted, an amended to the city land sale that requires Hill Health to follow through on two commitments that it had previously made to neighborhood residents: That someone from the community have a seat on the prospective new center’s board of directors. And that the community management team can use the new building’s conference room for neighborhood meet-ups.

After the vote, Hill North Community Management Team Chair Howard Boyd said that he and his neighbors plan on continuing their opposition to the project as it now makes its way to the Board of Zoning Appeals for requested parking relief and then to the City Plan Commission for site plan review.

“We’re not a pushover team,” he said.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Guv Promises Better Metro-North Internet

by THOMAS BREEN Ct. News Junkie

Gov. Ned Lamont committed to upgrading cellphone internet access on the Metro North commuter rail line within a year — even if his latest transportation infrastructure bill doesn’t pass the state legislature, and even if his wealthy tower-weary Greenwich neighbors oppose the plan.

Lamont made that transportation internet connectivity promise during a brief press conference at Union Station Wednesday morning. He did so while standing alongside state Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Joe Giulietti and AT&T Connecticut President John Emra.

The 10-minute presser was the governor’s latest stop on a two-week tour promoting his administration’s recently unveiled $21 billion, CT2030 transportation infrastructure plan.

Wednesday’s version of Lamont’s pitch didn’t focus on highway tolls or train speed. It focused on internet speed. He said the state DOT is working with telecommunications giants AT&T, T-Mo-

bile, and Verizon to improve cell internet access all along the Connecticut stretch of the Metro North rail line, from New Haven to Stamford.

That will mean “clearing out the regulatory underbrush,” to make sure those companies have access to existing poles and to the public right of way so that they can install new transponders and nodes, he said. Those service upgrades will eliminate cell-connection “blackouts” that currently exist, particularly in Fairfield County, and will provide 4G cell access within a year along the entire Connecticut section of the New Haven line.

Transportation infrastructure improvements are not just about new rail cars and repaired train tracks, he said. “It also involves telecommuting. It also involves bringing our IT infrastructure into the 21st century.”

The proposed updates do not include train- or station-specific wi-fi connections, but rather increased cell data capacity.

Giuletti added that the CT2030 plan includes the state acquiring 132 new

railcars and 30 new locomotives for the Metro North line. Those will be a mix of electric, diesel, and dual-powered locomotives, he said. He also said that the new rail cars will feature two-by-two seating, work tables, different lighting modes for quiet cars and evening travel, and charging for mobile devices, in addition to the enhanced 4G and, eventually, 5G connectivity.

Will the internet service upgrades go forward even if the state legislature doesn’t pass the CT2030 plan? one reporter asked.

“I think it will,” Lamont replied. “We can do the 5G and 4G service on our old cars as well.”

And what about wealthy Greenwich residents who don’t want to see new cell-towers along the Metro North line? another reporter asked. They’re the ones responsible for the “blackouts” today.

What will Lamont, a Greenwich millionaire who built his fortune on his own telecommunications company, do to convince those neighbors of the value of this plan?

“These are not big cell-towers in your

Lamont, state DOT Commissioner Joe Giulietti, and AT&T Connecticut President John Emra.

backyard,” Lamont replied. “These are going to be transponders all along the Metro North” line so that all commuters have equal access to high-quality cell service while riding the train.

“I guarantee you my neighbors don’t want to waste time on a train car,” he continued. “They want to be productive the entire time, there and back.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Hundreds Brainstorm For A Better City

by THOMAS BREEN New Haven I ndependent

Launch a parent empowerment campaign that trains public school moms and dads on how best to advocate for their children.

Forge “cooperative education” partnerships that give public school students hands on experience for future skilled trade jobs.

And make sure that teachers, administrators, and school board members reflect the diversity of the students in their classrooms.

Those were a sampling of the cornucopia of ideas, priorities, specific initiatives and wishful musings proposed by a group of 20 public school watchdogs charged with thinking aloud about what’s working well, and what needs fixing, in the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) system.

That group represented one segment among over 200 people who filled the cafeteria of High School in the Community on Water Street Saturday morning for a two-and-a-half-hour public meeting hosted by Mayor-Elect Justin Elicker’s transition team.

The goal of the meeting, which was facilitated by Elizabeth Nearing and Kia Levey-Burden, was relatively simple ... and audaciously democratic: To bring together as many city residents as possible, regardless of their background or education or professional expertise or political affiliation, and have them come up with policy priorities for the next mayoral administration.

“I hope that we can all listen to each other and really share honesty here today,” Levey-Burden said as she laid out some of the ground rules, and some of her hopes and expectations, for the meeting ahead.

“I hope that we can bring all of our love, all of our excitement, all of our commitment for New Haven, all of our power and energy, to this room here today.”

The meeting was the first that Elicker has held since he announced his diverse slate of two dozen transition team members after soundly defeating incumbent Mayor Toni Harp in this month’s general election.

He and the facilitators said that the transition team will now take the superabundance of ideas—on education, public safety, housing, arts and culture, the environment, and more—that were proposed and scrawled on multiple sheaves of oversized paper Saturday morning and developing specific policy initiatives for the incoming Elicker administration to pursue upon taking office in January.

The transition team will be hosting another public brainstorming meeting at High School in the Community on Dec. 8. People can also submit ideas about

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO A standing room-only crowd at HSC Saturday. Below: An excerpt from a list of Education priorities.

Levey-Burden.

Christine Emmons pitches ideas for a better school system.

what they want the next administration to focus on via email at Transition@JustinElicker.com “The spirit is inclusion,” Elicker said to the standing room-only crowd as he introduced the transition team meeting.

“The spirit is giving people a voice in the way that the city is run. And I feel like today is an indication that we’re taking a really strong step in that direction.”

Nearing, a former community engagement staffer at Long Wharf Theatre with ample expertise leading thoughtful public conversations about large, challenging topics, warned the assembled

attendees that they would inevitably not be able to cover every single issue they care about in Saturday morning’s meeting alone.

But, she said, amidst teaching people how best to hold a microphone to maximize audibility (like a candy bar, held parallel to your mouth, and not like an ice cream cone, held beneath your mouth), this meeting represented a prime opportunity for city residents passionate about the wellbeing of New Haven to hear one another out, put ideas to paper, and have a say in the direction of local government.

10

“There’s a lot of different ideas in this room,” she said, “and we want to be able to honor them all.”

And so, after a few brief get-to-knowyour-neighbor exercises, followed by a room-wide brainstorming session about the biggest challenges facing the city today, Nearing and Levey-Burden asked the attendees to self-select into smaller groups focused on particular areas of interest.

People in each group then spent the next hour talking, debating, and brainstorming about what they see going on in the city today, and about how residents and City Hall might work together to make New Haven an even better place to live and study and work over the next few years to come.

“Money Is Not Going Where It’s Supposed To Be Going” Nearly 40 people who showed up Saturday morning wanted to talk about what’s going right and what’s going wrong with public education in this city. So the school system—currently at a crossroads of leadership and demographics and funding —wound up being the focal point for two separate groups’ worth of discussions.

Columbus Family Academy teacher Irene Logan took the lead in moderating one of those groups, a passionate mix of teachers, parents, social workers, school staffers, and other residents all squeezed around a single table in the northwest corner of the room.

“Money is not going to where it’s supposed to be going,” said city public school teacher Julie Anastasio (pictured).

She said that she’s spoken to quite a few colleagues in the district who have had to pay for pencils, paper, and other basic classroom supplies out of their own pockets.

The city summer school program she taught at this year never had enough books to hand out to kids for them to take home, she said. “Teachers have to provide a lot.”

Valerie Hardy (pictured, in the black hat), a social worker who has worked for the school system for 15 years, said that NHPS does an admirable job of trying to place at least one social worker in every city school.

Nevertheless, she said, the system has long struggled to hire enough school nurses, and has seen a recent winnowing of critical staff—including teachers, librarians, and counselors—because of budget shortfalls.

Persistent budget cuts and the racial, economic, and education segregation of this city has led to the development of radically unequal education environments within the same public school system, she said.

“You have a school like Hooker, which

is like paradise,” she said, “and then you have Troup, which is like somewhere in Beirut.”

Every school must be equally desirable and effective regardless of neighborhood, she said. Teachers need better training in how to educate special needs students. “And we need to make the cutlures in our schools friendly and accessible” to parents, and to better encourage their involvement in their children’s education.

Local clinical therapist Kym Mckoy (pictured, in the red hat) said she has two children currently enrolled at Hillhouse High School—and that she is quite relieved that they are just a few years from graduating and putting the public school system behind them.

One of her biggest concerns with the school system today is the racial and cultural disconnect she sees between many of the white teachers and many of the African American and Latino students.

“A lot of the teachers who are not African American need to become culturally sensitive to the kids they’re working with,” she said.

She said a teacher recently told one of her sons that he “doesn’t deserve to be in high school.” She was irate when she found out a school teacher had spoken to her son that way, she said. “There needs to be more sensitivity training,” as well as more teachers who look like and can identify with the majority-minority public school student population.

Bill MacMullen an architect and city Engineering Department staffer, said that, as someone who has spent his career in the building design and construction trade, he would love to see “cooperative education” partnerships and practical internships pushed for students who want to work, and not go to college, after graduating from high school.

In particular, he said, the city should pilot a partnership with adult education that would give students hands-on experience learning how to estimate, design, and construct buildings. They should be paired with contractors in a sort of school-sanctioned apprentice program that would give them the practical experience necessary to get a job in the trades after graduation.

Educational psychologist Christine Emmons (pictured, in the grey hat) agreed.

She said the city should have not only a traditional technology and vocational school, but also a “school of innovation” where students would be encouraged to build robots and other out-of-the-box solutions to any social or economic problem they can think of.

“Just open the field wide,” she said. The school system should build its capacity to teach and train students who want to Con’t on page 22

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Elicker Transition Team

not an 18 square mile municipal thing.”

Echoing a call for subsidized artist housing from both Kauder and artist Linda Lindroth, he also noted that the city needs to be thinking about the larger cultural region, where housing may make more sense in West Haven or Hamden’s Whitneyville neighborhood than New Haven alone.

The idea comes at a time when New Haven’s arts organizations—and as a result, their audiences—remain disproportionately white in a city that is not. Of the city’s so-dubbed arts “anchor” institutions (the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Creative Arts Workshop, Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Long Wharf Theatre, Neighborhood Music School, Shubert Theater, New Haven Museum, New Haven Symphony Orchestra), only Long Wharf Theatre is led by a person of color. Similarly, only one (also Long Wharf) is outside of downtown, just blocks from the city’s historic Hill neighborhood.

In the city, Donuis suggested, an arts equity framework could mark an economic shift that champions New Haven and its residents, reallocating funding to artists within the community instead of those outside it. Where the city has commissioned projects including Joe Standart’s We Are A Nation Of Immigrants and Rob Goldman’s iMatter Project, it would prioritize funding local artists and projects who look like the community they are serving because they grew up there.

Noting the need for increased youth programming in the city, she added that the framework might be a pathway to compensating young, local artists who are already embedded in the city’s neighborhoods.

Other suggestions dovetailed with calls for greater transparency and access to information that rose throughout the threehour meeting. Cultural Affairs Commission member Barbara Segaloff cited the need for a comprehensive arts and culture calendar at a time when events get lost between institutional calendars, university calendars, and social media (for contrast, the New Haven Advocate had an editor dedicated entirely to posting weekly events in the paper’s heyday). Multiple arts advocates also echoed calls for stronger schools, in which the arts and humanities are not constantly in danger.

The meeting, Elicker said, is just a start.

Thanking attendees, facilitators, and transition team members for showing up on a Saturday morning—particularly those who did not vote for him and still turned out—he urged them to spread information about his transition to their friends and colleagues, to keep the conversation going before he takes office in January.

“You people have huge networks,” he said as pizza arrived for those who wanted to stay and continue the conversation.

“Please, please, please go out into your networks and ask other people what they think the direction of the city should be.

And bring that back.”

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11

Juneboy Hits The Big Time THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

by PAUL BASS

New Haven I ndependent

William “Juneboy” Outlaw III was New Haven’s top cocaine dealer before he hit the age of 20. Then he spent decades behind bars, staring at death. At 51, he’s hitting a different big time as a star street outreach worker featured on the Today Show and in a biography about to rock the nation with a tale of personal redemption.

The book is called Citizen Outlaw: One Man’s Journey From Gangleader To Peacekeeper. Connecticut author Charles Barber, who spent five years hanging with Juneboy, wrote it. The book describes in dramatic detail how Outlaw brilliantly built up the city’s most lucrative drugdealing organization, then killed a rival, went to prison, reformed with a passion, and started saving lives back in New Haven by negotiating truces in the wake of shootings.

The weeks since HarperCollins released the book to rave reviews have been a whirlwind of public appearances, preparations to negotiate a movie deal mixed in with the day to day work of convincing New Haven ex-offenders they can lead productive lives rather than sink back into drugs or revenge violence.

The way Juneboy did.

“It’s overwhelming. I’ll be honest with you, ” Outlaw admitted during one of his radio appearances this week, on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”

“It’s new territory for me in terms of the spotlight — in a positive way.”

Outlaw knew the spotlight in a more notorious way back when cocaine replaced factory work as the driver of New Haven’s economy, especially in the black community, in the 1980s.

After dropping out of Wilbur Cross, Outlaw built up the most successful cocainedealing operation in town based at the old Church Street South housing complex across from Union Station. He named the gang the Jungle Boys—using the same initials as his nickname, Juneboy.

Only he doesn’t refer to that operation as a gang.

“I hate the word ‘gang,’” he said. It suggests that black people are sloppy, violent for the sake of violence, rather than effective business people. He looks back at the Jungle Boys as an “organized crime” operation akin to the mafia: All business.

At their height the Jungle Boys took in $45,000 a day. They didn’t know where to put all the cash; they buried some of it on the grounds of Church Street South. As CEO, Outlaw managed 40 people. Before he was old enough to vote.

“He broke the paradigm” for how drug-dealing crews operated in America, observed author Barber, a writer-in-residence at Wesleyan and lecturer in psychiatry at Yale: The employees lived off site rather than where they sold drugs in the

Jungle (as Church Street South became known). They stuck to selling cocaine; no side crimes that could bring them down.

And they earned the support of community where they sold by buying people furniture, helping people out financially, organizing fireworks displays.

It all came to an end in 1988 when a member of a New York-based Jamaican drug gang came to Church Street South to take care of Outlaw and take over his turf.

Outlaw got to him first then was caught by the cops and convicted of murder. He went to prison with an 85-year sentence, convinced he’d die behind bars.

At first Outlaw continued his ways behind bars. He oversaw drug dealing and

weapons smuggling, in concert with corrupt corrections staffers. The state concluded it couldn’t handle him, so he was sent off to two of the country’s most notorious federal penitentiaries, Lewisberg and Leavenworth.

Barber’s book offers an eye-opening account of how white supremacist gangs actually run the joint, and how inmates survive there if they’re lucky.

At first Outlaw survived with the help of the very Aryan Brotherhood that threatened his life, thanks to working with friends he had developed back in a Connecticut prison with a white supremacist inmate named Tiny Piskorski.

Then a phone call from his teen-aged

12

daughter Meredith changed his life. She was considering moving from Sacred Heart Academy to public school. Outlaw was urging her to take her studies seriously.

“Daddy, did you finish high school?” she asked.

The question hit him like rocket fire.

“I felt so much like a hypocrite,” he recalled. A day later he leaped into his own education. In four months he had a GED. Then he pursued advanced degrees. And dived into self-improvement programs, in which he also inspired others.

He was eventually sent back to Connecticut prison. Thanks to an appeal, his sentence was cut to 20 years.

In 2008, he found himself back in New Haven, and ready to turn around his life. He lived at first in a Project MORE halfway house overseen by the late Warren Kimbro who had turned his own life around from Black Panther assassin to leading reentry agency director. Kimbro recognized Outlaw’s potential to inspire others. Soon he was bringing Outlaw to speak to others leaving prison to straighten out their lives. And helping Outlaw avoid the prying eyes of FBI agents and others waiting for him to screw up.

Outlaw finally landed with the crew at New Haven’s Street Outreach Program, which dispatches ex-offenders to work with young people most involved with violence. The program has been credited with helping cops and the community bring New Haven’s violence rates to their lowest levels in 50 years. Citizen Outlaw details how Outlaw uses his street cred and persuasive powers to convince otherwise unconvinceable young men not to retaliate. In a sense, he gives them permission.

It’s God’s work, especially in cities.

Nationally, the criminal justice system releases 700,000 ex-offenders back into communities a year, estimated Barber; within three to four years, 60 percent return to prison. New Haven has been absorbing around 1,000 former prisoners a year back into the community.

The day HarperCollins released Citizen Outlaw, Juneboy was celebrating, along with his boss Leonard Jahad, the opening of a new Ashmun Street community center as part of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program (VIP), a new version of the street outreach program they started to resuscitate the effort.

Then came “Today.”

A producer and camera crew set up one afternoon last week on the second floor of Project MORE’s Grand Avenue headquarters, where Outlaw was holding a session of a support group for male ex-offenders trying to straighten out their lives after decades of crime and punishment.

Outlaw has been running the program for 10 years. Some participants have shown

up regularly all that time.

“We never had women in here before,” Outlaw observed as a “Today” producer directed her crew. Wait, there was one exception: He once invited a female domestic violence victim to describe to the group her experiences of abuse.

The scene swung from reality to surreality and back again. As cameras hovered overhead, the New York crew moved around the long table where the 14 men sat, acting as if it were a regular session.

Which, despite the distractions, it was.

Outlaw instructed participants to write letters to their fathers, then read them aloud.

“I want you to be totally honest,” Outlaw directed. “If he was good, say he was good. If he was a piece of shit, say he was a piece of shit.”

“I really miss you,” Curtis read aloud after he and other participants finished writing. “You tried to be a father to me, but the streets called me. When I was in prison, before you died, you gave me some advice that saved my life: ‘Son, get some mental health help.’”

“Did you get help?” Outlaw asked Curtis.

“Yes,” Curtis responded. “That’s why I’m here.”

“My mother abandoned me. My stepmother became my father. My father was an abusive person,” piped up Elliott Guzman from one end of the long table. “I don’t blame him. I always say, ‘Things happen for a reason.’”

Guzman started tearing up.

“Deeply in my heart, I forgive him. I forgive him. Everybody makes mistakes.

Now I’ve got my own kids. It’s up to me to be a better father.”

Guzman has made many mistakes of his own. He estimated he has been locked up “more than 30 times” on more than 50 felony charges. He said he finds that “Mr. William’s” support group is helping him straighten out this time.

Soon close to half the room was wiping back tears.

“There’s nothing wrong with crying here and getting emotional,” Outlaw assured the group. “Let the tears out. It’s like a river flowing downstream. That’s when the healing begins.”

Outlaw wrote a letter, too. And took a turn reading it aloud.

“Dear Dad,” he read. “Why did you put the scar on my mother’s face?

“I’s so angry at you. I’m out of prison now. I’m trying to be a real man. I hope to see you again in heaven. I have so many questions to ask you.”

After the formal session ended, the “Today” crew started packing up. Outlaw brought out a box of books. His new book. Participants lined up for their signed copies.

Elliott Guzman, smiling, took his copy and displayed it, like a trophy.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

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10/7/19 6:58 PM

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Tracey Tackles Schools’ Central Office

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK New Haven I ndependent

With a new chief financial officer in place and more help on the way, Superintendent Iline Tracey is beginning to restore order to Central Office.

Tracey (pictured) shared her efforts with school board members at Monday night’s Finance & Operations Committee in a conference room at the district’s Meadow Street headquarters, during presentations on how the district is allocating $33.8 million in new grants and mitigating an $8.4 million deficit in this year’s budget.

Tracey said she has asked schools to institute a spending freeze for any nonessential hires or purchases.

“We’re trying to make sure we’re not going to spend more just to spend it,” she said. “We’re asking, ‘Do you really need this?’ If you do, we’re not going to say no.”

Phillip Penn, the district’s new chief financial officer who began work on Monday, said he’s also started looking over the budget for savings. He said he plans to conduct a line-by-line analysis of how salaries have changed for staffing positions. And he said that he’d share any plans for budget mitigations as soon as possible.

.“If you don’t share the bad news, the good news has no credibility,” Penn said.

Throughout the rest of Central Office, Tracey said she’s also refilling the ranks of administrators — after top talent left the district during Carol Birks’s tenure as superintendent.

Using the state’s $15.3 million Alliance grant, she’s creating three new positions that will pick up some of the departed employees’ old job responsibilities.

A director of curriculum and instruction, partly filling in for Tracey’s initial role as assistant superintendent, will essentially supervise the curriculum supervisors. “Academic achievement must be a focus,” Tracey explained. “We need a designated person just to pay attention to that.”

A professional learning administrator, patly filling in for Robin Metaj’s role as lead teacher-librarian, will set up district-wide training sessions, based on the findings from this summer’s curriculum audit.

Principals will still set up their own professional development around their school’s theme, but this person will develop “a more strategic focus” for the district’s priorities, Tracey said. She said they’ll work on leadership training

CHRISTOPHER PEAK PHOTO CFO Phillip Penn gives his first presentation at Monday’s F&O Committee meeting

to prepare a corps of administrators-inwaiting.

That administrator will also pick up Metaj’s work of creating a digital professional development library with modules and lessons that teachers could download. “We’re spending a lot on

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14

contractors,” Tracey said, that could be saved “if we start building in-house.”

Finally, a college and career supervisor, partly filling in for Dolores GarciaBlocker’s role as college and career readiness director, will oversee the opening of three new College & Career

Centers at James Hillhouse HS, Wilbur Cross HS and High School in the Community, where students can go for help with their post-graduation plans, like applying for financial aid or writing résumés.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Black Women Entrepreneurs to Purchase Fashion Fair Beauty Line From Johnson Publishing For $1.85 Million

By Taylor A. Sylvain, New Orleans Agenda

New Orleans, LA — According to published reports, New Orleans native Desirée Glapion Rogers and her business partner, Cheryl Mayberry McKissack will purchase the iconic Fashion Fair beauty line from Johnson Publishing Company; the former publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines for $1.85 million. On Thursday, November 7, 2019, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Fashion Fair to Winnetka, Ill.-based FFair Acquisition LLC, a holding company formed for the acquisition.

Founded in 1973 as the first makeup line created for women of color, Fashion Fair was once considered the largest Black-owned cosmetics company in the world. At its peak in 2003, the brand sold $56 million in total sales.

“Fashion Fair is just too valuable for our community to lose,” Ms. Rogers said in an interview with Aisha Al-Muslim. “We plan to modernize the brand and products, but will remain true to the company’s roots, which was to create prestige products focused on women of color.”

In addition to having served as the White House social secretary under former President Barack Obama, Rogers once served as CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, overseeing publication of Ebony and Jet magazines while McKissack served as chief operating officer and president of digital. Magnetar Capital LLC founder and Chief Executive Alec Litowitz is reportedly also backing the deal in his personal capacity.

This is Rogers and McKissack second foray as cosmetic business owners, earli-

Aisha Al-Muslim contributed to the writing of this article.

Photo: Desiree Glapion Rogers and Cheryl Mayberry McKissack er this year the two became co-owners of Black Opal LLC, a skin-care and color cosmetics line founded in 1994 for women of color. Black Opal offers everything from concealer to mascara. Ms. Rogers is Black Opal’s CEO and Ms. Mayberry McKissack serves as its president, while Mr. Litowitz is a key investor.

Black Opal products are available mainly at drug and grocery stores, including CVS and Walmart, while Fashion Fair products were sold mainly at high-end department stores such as Macy’s and Dillard’s outlets.

To revive the Fashion Fair brand, Ms. Rogers and Ms. Mayberry McKissack are considering creating a new community-driven capsule collection paying homage to the original product line in

2020.

“We want to know which of our products favorites amongst members of our community are and what other products they would like to see from the brand,” said Ms. Mayberry McKissack… “This conversation will be important as we breathe new life into this iconic brand.”

Taylor Sylvain is a senior journalism student attending Clark Atlanta University’s Division of Communication Arts in the department of Mass Media Arts and serves as an intern for The New Orleans Agenda. A native of New Orleans, she especially enjoys assignments dealing with art, culture, fashion and the music industry. Taylor may be reached via email through SylvainSolutions@msn. com.

12:00 pM | yAlE BoWl

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"DIRECTCITY" TO AddTEXT a little bit of body text

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

‘Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools’

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Black girls who have been subject to punitive school policies and practices are at an increased risk of coming into contact with the juvenile and criminal courts and leaving school altogether, ultimately impeding their ability to achieve future success and lead successful and healthy lives, according to a new documentary, “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools.”

The film presents a number of these stories in heartbreaking detail and further explores a topic that was originally presented in the 2016 book of the same name by Monique W. Morris.

“Why not go to heaven now? I don’t want to be here,” Samaya, one of the girls featured in the film, says at one point.

At 12, Samaya is now an honor student. It has taken years of therapy and a change of school for her to recover from the traumatic incident that led her to a bridge above a highway contemplating suicide at the age of 7.

The event: One of her teachers, Mr. Rodriquez, gave Samaya a warning after a minor disagreement with another child.

Then, after Samaya accidentally knocked over a glass of water, Rodri-

COMMENTARY:

guez punished Samaya by dragging her and her chair outdoors “in a fit of frightening rage.”

The teacher pulled Samaya out of her classroom on a cold 46-degree December morning. She did not have on a coat or jacket. She was wearing only a pink and gray sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Coping with the death of her beloved father, the destruction by fire of the only home she knew, and facing constant bullying, Ariana, another story shared by the filmmakers, found herself at a breaking point. “There is so much rage building in me,” the teen shares in the film.

Now, 16, Ariana said she didn’t know how to deal with the adversity she faced at home and school. She was suspended multiple times as classmates would pick on her because “I don’t look the way they look or dress the way they dress.”

Fortunately, a change in schools altered the trajectory of her life. Ariana, now a drummer in her school band at the Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls, has been able to turn her life around with the help of teachers, whom she credits with guiding her toward a positive response to the challenges she faces.

Some Black girls, like Samaya and Ariana, face educational, judicial, and soci-

etal disparities.

Black girls, and other girls of color, experience discriminatory, disparate, punitive, and unfair treatment in school, including suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement and arrests on school campuses, at rates that exceed the public school population in aggregate — and far exceed those experienced by their White female peers.

“This has to change. Our girls deserve more,” the filmmakers write on their website.

According to the most recent U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights data, Black girls are seven times more likely to be suspended from school, and four times more likely to be arrested on a school campus than their White peers.

Punitive practices and policies in schools fuel systemic inequities and result in negative outcomes based on race and gender. They have profound consequences for Black girls: rather than promote safety and well-being, these practices disproportionately push Black girls out of school and further into the margins.

“Pushout,” is being screened in several cities. For more information, or to host a screening, visit www.pushoutfilm.com.

Roger Stone the Fifth Criminal in Trumps Corruption Ring

By Roger Caldwell, NNPA Newswire Contributor

It is time for America to be honest with itself and admit that President Donald Trump is breaking the law. When Trump talks about draining the swamp, he is really talking about his leadership ring.

“Five of Trump’s lieutenants, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and now Roger Stone, have all pleaded guilty or have been convicted of a crime. The stench of corruption is all around Donald Trump, and this week’s ruling reminds us just how important and need of Congress’ impeachment inquiry is,” says Terrie Rizzo, Chairwomen of the Florida Democratic Party.

Truth and integrity are rare commodities in President Trump’s inner circle, his administration, and the Republican Party. When someone in Trump’s inner circle is convicted of breaking a law, Republicans refuses to say anything, and act like it did not happen.

Instead of someone in the Republican Party acknowledging that there is corruption in the White House, they blame the judges and court system for doing their job. Thirty minutes after the jury delivered its verdict on Roger Stone, the president was upset, and tweeted his

(Illustration: DonkeyHotey / Wikimedia Commons)

displeasure that his longtime friend was caught breaking the law on 7 counts.

It is crazy to think that the president is mad with Roger Stone being found guilty of five counts of lying to Congress, one of witness tampering, and one of obstructing a congressional committee proceeding.

It appears that the Trump administration is the mafia, and our president is the

godfather. The members of the Republican Party seem to have no comment, on Trump’s campaign team breaking the law. All around the world, the different countries are watching America’s corruption starting with the head – who is President Donald Trump and his associates.

America has reached the point of insanity, and everyone is comfortable with ly-

16

ing, and what will the Republicans do.

The American people have a right to know the truth, and the impeachment is exposing the corruption and the lawlessness with our president, and his administration.

“Robert Mueller is coming for me,” Stone wrote before asserting that his name was next on what he called Mueller’s “hit list” of targets. Stone denied any wrongdoing and said he faced legal peril simply because he had advised Trump for several decades.

It is amazing that Roger Stone in 2016 thought he had not broken any laws, even though he lied to the Congress. He claimed that Mueller’s investigation was a witch hunt, and he “may frame Stone on some bogus charge.”

During the campaign, Stone had confirmed that he exchanged messages with “Guccifer2.0” which was a front for Russian intelligence operatives. These Russian intelligence operatives stole and leaked emails from senior Democrats, throwing the party and election into turmoil at the height of the 2016 campaign.

Stone also claimed to have communicated with Julian Assange, owner of WikiLeaks, who published the Democratic emails.

With this new information and conviction, it is obvious that prosecutors

are still working on Trump’s Russian corruption with the 2016 election. Rick Gates’ testimony in Stone’s trial proved that Trump had welcomed the release of hacked documents in the 2016 election.

“Gates testified he had witnessed Trump take an evening phone call from Stone as they rode to New York’s LaGuardia Airport from Trump Tower in late July 2016. Stone and Trump apparently discussed Wiki-Leaks’ planned release of hacked Democratic emails,” says Katelyn Polantz – reporter of CNN Politics.

They thought these stolen emails was a gift.

In written answers to questions to Mueller, Trump does not remember taking a call from Roger Stone and talking about hacked information from WikiLeaks. Stone sentencing is scheduled for February 6, 2020. Back in 2016, Stone stated that he had not broken any laws, and Mueller’s investigation was a witch hunt.

But in November 2019, Roger Stone has been convicted, and the investigation was more than a witch hunt. He may turn state or federal evidence to receive a shorter sentence, based on what he knows. Why is Trump’s corruption ring, still supporting their boss – President Donald Trump?

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

17

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

‘Tis The Season: How To Help Grieving Loved Ones During The Holidays trying to smooth everything over, allow your friend to grieve in a way that he/ she needs to.

This may include respecting someone’s desire not to attend social events or someone’s wish not to put up decorations or engage in holiday gatherings.

The key thing is to be supportive. If someone doesn’t want to go out, maybe you can offer to visit or you can offer a gift card to his/her favorite restaurant.

by Dr. Tyra Seldon

In just a couple of weeks, we will enter into the Thanksgiving season. The time period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is one that is often ripe with festivities, family gatherings, parties, and other joyous occasions. Many of us look forward to this time of the year and all of the merriment that comes along with it.

However, for some people, the holidays can be a very difficult time. For some, rather than being sociable or spending time around people, they’d much rather spend time alone. This may be normal for some people, but social isolation may be a sign that someone has the holiday blues, especially if they’ve experienced the death of a loved one or friend.

According to the American Psychological Association, “ Human beings are naturally resilient, considering most of us can endure loss and then continue on with our own lives. But some people may struggle with grief for longer periods of time and feel unable to carry out daily activities. Those with severe grief may be experiencing complicated grief.

These individuals could benefit from the help of a psychologist or another licensed mental health professional with a

2. Listen and Learn

specialization in grief.”

For many of us, we may desire to help, especially during this time of the year.

So, what can you do if a friend or loved one is dealing with grief? Here are 3 suggestions that may help you to help someone during this holiday season.

1. Allow Your Friend to Grieve “It will be ok,” sounds like a great way to reassure someone who is going through a rough time. The reality is that when you are dealing with death and/ or someone dying, it doesn’t feel like everything will be ok. So, rather than

18

Sharing memories about one’s loved one can be cathartic. Your friend may want to share memories and or pictures and artifacts. As you provide a listening ear, allow your intuition to guide you. Sometimes listening may be all that someone needs. In other instances, asking questions will provide the person who is grieving with a chance to share new memories with you.

Whatever you do, don’t push. Allow your friend to lead the conversation both in terms of the conversations’ content and pacing.

3. Be Patient Although time may not heal all wounds,

it does have a way of providing us with perspective. As a good friend, one of the greatest gifts that you can offer someone who is grieving is the gift of being patient. There is no timetable for healing nor is there a correct way for someone to heal. During the holiday season, especially, we all tend to be busy and on the go. Slowing down and simply being present with someone in need can make a significant difference.

As we prepare for the next 6 weeks, just remember that this season may be a difficult one for others. Be considerate and be empathetic while also recognizing that the things that you really enjoy may not be enjoyable for someone else.

Tyra Seldon, Ph.D. is a former English professor turned writer, editor and small business owner. Passionate about the English language and the craft of storytelling, she launched Seldon Writing Group, LLC in 2011. Dr. Seldon has worked with education tech companies, celebrities, aspiring writers, entrepreneurs, media outlets, Fortune 500 companies, and government agencies to develop their written content. When she’s not writing, she’s traveling the world, one continent at a time. She can be reached at dr.tyra@seldonwritinggroup.com

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Obesity among Black women outrageously high

By Darcie Ortique, OW Contributor

Betty Busby, 55, has struggled with her weight since high school. “It’s in my genes to be chubby, and I have always thanked God that I have a man that loves my shape,” she said. “He still thinks I’m sexy with my small waistline, big hips and thighs. I will be forever grateful for that.”

However, Busby’s significant other has been upset—and sometimes frustrated— with her recent drop in weight and size of her hips. “I’m attempting to improve my health by dieting and exercising,” Busby explained. She is under a diet regimen and is taking medication for high cholesterol and hypertension after feeling the pain of extra lower-body weight. “I sometimes get annoyed because he is constantly [overseeing] my meals and complains about the difference in hip size.”

Living with constant harassment In addition to health issues, Busby said her shape has caused problems in shopping for clothing that smaller women can typically buy off-the-rack. Men are often verbally assertive with unsolicited comments and reactions to well-endowed women.

“As a young adult, I had to learn to live with the harassment,” she said. “Butt slaps were really offensive. I just hated when a guy would not back down with coming up to me in a public place. I asked one guy why he was so persistent, and he responded with: ‘I’m afraid if I go home without your number, I’ll never meet someone like you again.’”

Busby also said the work world can be a tricky environment, particularly if you encounter a female superior with different [smaller] physical attributes than you.

“Males will move boxes for you, open doors and pay special attention to you,” said Busby who is employed by the Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services.

African American women are reportedly more susceptible to being overweight or obese than any other race. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health has reported that roughly four out of five African American women are either overweight or suffering from obesity. This statistic has a lot to do with the long-standing history of the African American culture, socioeconomic status, stress, and dietary habits that have been passed down from one generation to another.

Cultural standards and barriers Some will argue that there are a number of cultural barriers (fashionability, family responsibilities, stressful lifestyle) that may also challenge or prevent many African American women from exercising regularly.

United States Surgeon General Regina Benjamin stated in an interview for the Chicago Tribune, “Oftentimes you get women saying, ‘I can’t exercise today because of

my hair or get my air wet.’” For some, there’s a trade-off between preserving heatrequired hairstyles and physical fitness and research suggests that misplaced vanity is at the root of the problem.

To the contrary, African American men and the media have also supported plussize and curvy women, which have made many overweight African American women feel comfortable in their skin.

The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a poll to get the perspective directly from the source. According to The Washington Post, the poll revealed that “although Black women are [generally] heavier than their White counterparts, they report having appreciably higher levels of self-esteem. That figure was 66 percent among Black women considered by government standards overweight or obese.”

Research like this also suggests that, as a culture, the majority of African American women see no harm in being too vain to take accountability for their health. The 1992 hit, ‘Baby Got Back,’ by Sir Mix-aLot, highlighted the fact that many Black men embrace full-figured black women, despite contrary beliefs: “ I want em’ real thick and juicy so find that juicy double Mix-a-Lot’s in trouble,” The old-school rapper went on to say, “So Cosmo says you’re fat, Well I ain’t down with that ‘Cause your waist is small and your curves are kickin.’”

‘Baby Got Back’ Songs like this and others inspired Black women to love the skin they’re in and to be proud of their “thickness” because men appreciate rolls, curves and big bottoms.

For years, many R&B, Hip Hop & Rap musicians have type-casted the women they have in their music videos. And more often than not, the video vixens usually have a small waist, thick hips, thighs and a big butt. Black women who aren’t “thick” or “curvy” are going to great measures to achieve this look.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that ‘cosmetic augmentation among black people increased 56 percent between 2005 and 2013 and is still rising.”

Richard White, M.D. physician, specializing in internal medicine and research at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., has studied the correlation between health literacy and the effect is has on chronic health disease and obesity in underserved communities. “It’s really going to require the African-American community to come together as a unit to really say, ‘you know what? this is our health as a community, this is something that we’re going to take the initiative and interest to improve ourselves and not necessarily rely on outside or external forces to try and make it happen for us,” White said. He encourages his African American patients to take a personal inventory of their lives and take accountability for the foods they are consuming and the decisions they make regarding physical activity.

The lure of fatty food “I think that we can create in our community a mentality that this is something that we don’t have to accept,” he added. “We have the collective energy as a community and as a culture to push back and to really make changes.”

In most African American gatherings and celebrations, food is the highlight of the event and often sought out as the most important. The problem is that calorie-dense foods that are rich in flavor—but lack vital nutrients—are usually presented as a way of fellowship with little to no portion control.

“The thing that I really feel passionate about is empowering, particularly our African-American community to really understand the influences that have been propagated from across the culture that have led to poor health outcomes,” White said. “There’s a social injustice that’s being propagated towards us as a community.”

Researchers speculate whether this may be the first generation to not outlive their parents, considering the alarming numbers of obese children, who later become obese adults. There is a psychological approach to preventing obesity and it is the responsibility of the parent(s) to have candid discussions about what children should put into their bodies and what foods are important to consume in moderation.

Deciding to eat healthy The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office conducted a study in 2015 that revealed African American women were 60 percent more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic White women.

Today, there is still a disproportionate ratio between the height of most African American women and their weight which is how body mass index is measured.

“If you look at a lot of those commercials for fast food industries, you will see they’re specifically targeting African American communities and it’s sad, but it’s something that we as a culture, have sort

19

of allowed to happen,” White explained.

“These industries are multi-billion-dollar industries for a reason because we continue to give them our dollars.”

Most fast food commercials feature African American women promoting greasy, fattening foods that are high in cholesterol and lead to diabetes, strokes and heart attacks.

Percell Keeling is a distance runner and owner of Simply Wholesome, a full-service health food store and restaurant in Los Angeles. Keeling works alongside health professionals to help provide insight for the community on eating healthy and helping to increase life expectancy.

“We have nutritionists on-site… A lot of individuals will come in and ask about certain problems they might have,” Keeling said. “What’s interesting to me is that a lot of individuals will come in after they’ve exhausted everything from the doctor.”

Keeling and his team sell fresh foods and natural, holistic products. Consumers have a variety of organic foods to choose from at Simply Wholesome. Whether you are vegan, vegetarian or a meat-eater, Simply Wholesome provides a tasty, Caribbean twist to healthy eating.

Keeling recalls recognizing the need for exposure and resources for natural foods when he first opened his business. “It costs money to eat well, unfortunately,” he said. “The system is kind of set up like that now… A lot of times most people are a product of their environment, even if it is on a subconscious basis.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women had the highest percentage of fast food consumption at 42.9 percent versus 36.3 percent of White women and 35.8 percent of Latino females. In addition to proper nutrition, exercise is a key component to combat obesity and other cardiovascular complications. The U.S. National Library of Medicine reported only 36 percent of adult African American women achieve the national physical activity guidelines for aerobic activity.

Regular exercise key to weight loss Jonathan Denzel Sergent is a certified elite personal trainer, nutrition specialist, licensed massage therapist and a self-defense coach in Los Angeles. He works with a variety of female body shapes. “My target audience is women of all shapes, sizes and workout history (beginner, intermediate, advanced),” Sergent said.

With six years of experience as a all-inone fitness expert, Sergent opened his own business, Denzell’s Gazelle s’s — an initiative designed to empower women to live healthy lifestyles.

“My aim is to help women identify their goals, design a fitness program that fits their needs, guide them through every exercise, every 45- 60- or 80-minute workout and have them feeling refreshed after a free, 30-minute massage,” Sergent said.

Unlike many fitness experts, Sergent takes a realistic approach to coaching women and helping them to reach their individual goals. He offers free consultations to those seeking a change in lifestyle and recommends seeking professional expertise on how to manage weight loss. “You need an outside look into your dietary needs,” Sergent said.

“Foods that work for some people may not work for you.” Despite the cultural standards and familiarity of “plus size” African American women—and the accompanying labels such as “plump,” “thick,” “heavyset,” “healthy,” etc.—there are dire health consequences for this segment of the population if their weight continues to increase.

These include the onset of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, bone damage, and a declining selfesteem in a world that can unfairly place a premium on a slim and svelte physical appearance.

Contact Johnathan Denzel Sergent at denzelsgazells.com (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

Police Officer Town of Greenwich

Do You Want A Job That Makes A Difference? Become A Town of Greenwich Police Officer. To view detailed information and apply online visit www.governmentjobs. com/careers/greenwichct Candidates must fulfill several basic requirements including: Be a U.S. Citizen Be at least 20 years of age · Possess 45 college credits, or 2 years of active military service or equivalent Current Salary: $68,301

The Town of Greenwich is dedicated to Diversity & Equal Opportunity Employment; Town of Greenwich, HR Dept., 101 Field Point Rd, Greenwich, CT 06830 Close Date 4:00 PM 1/23/20.

Water Treatment Pumping Operators The Town of Wallingford’s Water Division is seeking candidates to fill a vacancy involved in the treatment of the water system. Candidates must have a H.S. diploma and a water treatment plant operator’s school diploma/certification acceptable to the Town with 3 years of actual experience in a water treatment plant with 1 year of supervisory experience or an equivalent combination of education & qualifying experience. Candidates must have or be eligible within six months of the probationary period for the certifications required for the position indicated in the job posting.

Wages: $27.47 - $33.34 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Applications/resumes will be accepted until December 9, 2019, at the following address: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., Wallingford, CT 06492, (203) 294-2080. Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE

The Glendower Group, Inc Invitation for Bid Snow Removal Services – 3rd Party Sites

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

HELP WANTED: Large CT guardrail company

looking for Laborer/Driver with valid CT CDL Class A license and able to get a medical card. Must be able to pass a drug test and physical. Compensation based on experience. Email resume to dmastracchio@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE M-F

Equipment Operator Help Wanted: Immediate opening for Equipment Operator for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate required. CDL license a plus but not required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp.@ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

Laborer Help Wanted: Immediate opening for Construction Laborer for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

CDL Driver Help Wanted: Immediate opening for CDL Driver for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate and clean CDL license required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

Project Manager/Project Supervisor The Glendower Group, Inc an affiliate of Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking bids for Snow Removal Services at Third Party Sites. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at 3:00PM

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES Request for Proposals Development of Single Family Homeownership Housing The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Development of Single Family Homeownership Housing. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at 3:00PM.

Electric Distribution Engineer – The Town of Wallingford Electric Division is seeking a highly technical individual to work in the design and development of overhead and underground power distribution lines. The utility serves 24,700 customers in a 50+ square mile distribution area with a peak demand of 130 MW. The position requires a B.S. degree in electrical engineering plus 2 years of responsible experience in utility engineering, or an equivalent combination of education and experience substituting on a year-for year basis. Salary: $78,336- $100,225 annually plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone #: (203) 294-2080, Fax #: (203) 294-2084. Closing date will be December 17, 2019. EOE.

Help Wanted: Immediate opening for a Project Manager/Project Supervisor for Heavy and Highway Construction. Previous experience on CTDOT projects required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998.

We are an equal opportunity employer M/F

Listing: Accounting

Accounting Department has an immediate opening in Ac-

counts Payable. This full time position in a fast-paced office environment could be an excellent entry to an Accounting career. Requires good computer and organizational skills, attention to detail, and multi-tasking. Benefits include health, dental & LTD insurance plus 401(k). Send resume to: Human Resource Dept. P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

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

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

APPLY NOW! Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Top pay for top performers.

Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

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Civil Engineer

Diversified Technology Consultants (DTC) is a multi-disciple engineering and environmental consulting firm. DTC is a leader in servicing governmental clients for four decades. DTC prides itself as having worked on a wide variety of project types. From schools and senior centers to town halls and universities, our diverse portfolio provides extensive experience to our communities.

As DTC enters its forth decade, we are seeking an energetic, organized and proactive professional in our Civil Engineering Department. The successful candidate(s) will work closely with our technical staff in support of DTC’s strategic goals and objectives.

This is an entry level position located in our Hamden, Connecticut office.

Responsibilities:

• Assist in the preparation of plans, specifications, supporting documents, and permit applications for private and municipal projects.

• Assist in preparation of calculations such as storm drainage, water supply & wastewater collection, cost estimates, and earthwork quantities.

• Perform design and drafting using AutoCAD Civil 3D. MicroStation experience is beneficial but not required.

Qualifications:

• Graduate from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering.

• Engineer in training certificate preferred.

For Further information or to apply send resumes to ellen.nelson@teamdtc.com DTC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

DTC is a Drug Free Work Place.

Individuals with Disabilities, Minorities and Protected Veterans are encouraged to apply.

Construction Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

Autoridad de Vivienda de Branford, Parkside Village II Aceptar solo solicitudes para apartamentos de eficiencia Parkside Village II/ no Utilities A partir de $592 mensuales, Max. Ingresos Límite: 1 persona $52,850, Contacto: Merit Properties, Inc., 1224 Mill St., Bldg. A Berlín Oriental CT 06023, correo electrónico: info@ merit-properties.net, 860-828-0531 ext. 204

Branford Housing Authority, Parkside Village II

Accepting Applications for Efficiency Apartments Only Elderly 62+/Disabled 18+ Community Parkside Village II/no Utilities Starting at $592 a month, Max. Income Limit: 1 person $52,850, Contact: Merit Properties, Inc., 1224 Mill St., Bldg. A #102, East Berlin CT 06023, e-mail: info@merit-properties.net, 860-828-0531 ext.204

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Water Treatment Pumping Operators

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Tom Dunay Phone: 860- 243-2300 Email: Tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

The Town of Wallingford’s Water Division is seeking candidates to fill a vacancy involved in the treatment of the water system. Candidates must have a H.S. diploma and a water treatment plant operator’s school diploma/ certification acceptable to the Town with 3 years of actual experience in a water treatment plant with 1 year of supervisory experience or an equivalent combination of education & qualifying experience. Candidates must have or be eligible within six months of the probationary period for the certifications required for the position indicated in the job posting. Wages: $27.47 - $33.34 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Applications/resumes will be accepted until December 9, 2019, at the following address: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., Wallingford, CT 06492, (203) 294-2080. Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks: Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Union Company seeks:

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact Dana at 860-243-2300.

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

DELIVERY PERSON NEEDED Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

Must Have your Own Vehicle

If Interested call

(203) 387-0354

Property Management Company is seeking a Resident Services Coordinator in New Haven, CT. Part time- 16 hrs/wk. Must have experience working w/ senior and disabled community. Social Services background preferred.

Please call (860) 951-9411 x238 for inquiries.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation for Bids

Window, Screen and Glass Replacement and Repair Services The Housing Authority of the City of New Havend/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Window, Screen and Glass Replacement and Repairs Services. A complete copy of the requirementsmay be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems. com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 at 3:00PM.

NEW HAVEN POLICE NOW HIRING

Listing: Accounting

Accounting Department has two immediate openings for full time Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable professionals in a fast-paced office environment. Must be highly organized, possess good computer skills, be detail oriented, and able to manage multiple projects. Benefits include health, dental & LTD insurance plus 401(k). Send resume to: Human Resource Dept. P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

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

NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS HACD Corp.

Supportive Housing Program RFP No. P19008

Apply online at Policeapp.com Or Visit our Social Media Pages For More Information

SCOPE:

HACD Corp. is seeking proposals for a structured independent living environment for low/very low-income individuals who may or may not be experiencing homelessness.

CONTACT PERSON:

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

HOW TO OBTAIN THE RFP DOCUMENTS:

Contact Ms. Devin Marra, via e-mail.

PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE:

98 Elm Street, Danbury, CT 06811 December 11, 2019 at 2:00 PM (EST)

PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL RETURN:

HACD Corp.

2 Mill Ridge Rd, Danbury, CT 06811 Envelope Must be Marked: RFP No. P19008 Supportive Housing Program

PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL DEADLINE

December 20, 2019 at 2:00PM (EST)

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

21

New Haven Police Department Recruitment Team

Nhpdrecruitment

NHPDrecruitment

CONSTRUCTION HELP WANTED LaRosa Building Group is looking for people interested in construction for a project in New Haven.

New Haven and Section 3 residents are encouraged to apply.

For applications: Visit the job site at 300 Wilmot Rd, New Haven CT., or join us on Thursday, November 14th, at 6:00 PM

or

Email: HR@larosabg.com

An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Three Quarters Are “Excited” When Brands Send Deals in Emails

Con’t from page 10

Survey Shows Nearly All U.S. Consumers Plan Majority of Holiday Shopping Online

Leanplum, the leading multi-channel engagement platform, today announced the results of a new study* that shows consumers are shunning brick-and-mortar stores this holiday season with over 95 percent choosing to buy half or more of their gifts online.

Younger Americans (Millennials and Gen Zs) are leading the online shopping trend and over 16 percent are “only” shopping online this holiday season.

As shopping online and via mobile devices quickly becomes the new norm, personalized communication becomes even more crucial to brand success. With 80 percent of respondents reporting that they shop on their mobile phones, brands need solutions that enable them to reach their customers at appropriate touchpoints. Brands must successfully connect the right way and at the right time with their customers.

Three-quarters of shoppers find it helpful to receive emails from retailers regarding deals and promotions. Interestingly, 74 percent of those surveyed said they were “excited” to receive notifications from retailers about offers/ sales. After receiving a notification from a brand about a deal, almost 70 percent said they would check out the offer and probably purchase the item.

However, 75 percent of respondents said generic messages from retailers annoy or bother them. Consumers have a preference for when and how they would like to receive messages from retailers.

It is imperative retailers communicate with their consumers regularly regarding topics that are useful to them and in the form that they are most comfortable engaging with, to ensure consumer satisfaction and retention.

“Personalizing customer experience and communication is the cornerstone of everything we do at Afterpay,” said Frazer Adnam, CRM marketing director at Afterpay, a Leanplum customer. “Christmas is a key trading period for Afterpay and the retail sector, so it’s imperative we deliver a world-class personalization experience to our customers and make trading seamless.”

Across all income levels, consumers reported sales as the primary reason they opened notifications from brands and retailers. Surprisingly, even respondents who earn $150,000 or more annually, stated they are most excited to receive push notifications from retailers regarding sales.

Gone are the days of coupon clipping, instead consumers prefer to receive discounts and deals from brands via email.

In fact, two-thirds of respondents reported they open emails from brands they believed contained product deals or sales.

When asked about favorite shopping apps, the Amazon app dominated with 82 percent of the vote. Walmart was a very distant second with five percent of

the vote, followed by second-hand marketplaces (eBay/Poshmark/ThredUp) at four percent and Target at three percent.

Consumers had opinions about how brands communicate with them as well.

Sweden’s H&M handily beat out other brands with 19 percent of the vote. Urban Outfitters (12 percent), Asos (four percent), Zara (four percent) and Brandy Melville (two percent) rounded out the top five best brands at communicating with consumers.

“As shopping habits shift online and away from brick-and-mortar stores, brands must adjust to communicate with their customers via mobile,” said Momchil Kyurkchiev, CEO and co-founder of Leanplum. “Through our research, we see that it’s important that brands provide a personalized experience for each customer. At Leanplum, our core mission is to enable our customers to consistently deliver relevant, timely and personalized communications to their end users.”

Other interesting statistics include: Nearly half (46 percent) of respondents said that they’ve bought a product because it was shown in an app or sent in an email Over half (52 percent) of Millennials and Gen Zs will shop on Cyber Monday and Black Friday compared to just over a third of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers About two-thirds of respondents that make $150,000 or more annually plan to do most of their holiday shopping online

this year Download the complete survey report for additional tips and insights.

About Leanplum Leanplum, the leading multi-channel engagement platform helps forwardlooking brands like Tinder and Tesco meet the real-time needs of their customers. By transforming data into an understanding of users’ needs and wants, our platform delivers unified experiences that are timely, tested and relevant — building customer loyalty that fuels business growth.

Founded in San Francisco, Leanplum has offices across North America, Europe and Asia, and has received more than $98 million in funding from leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms.

Leanplum has also been recognized as Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For and Entrepreneur’s Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America. Download the media kit and learn more at www.leanplum.com. *Leanplum surveyed 1,000 online shoppers in the United States, October 2019.

All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.

Gone are the days of coupon clipping, instead consumers prefer to receive discounts and deals from brands via email.

In fact, two-thirds of respondents reported they open emails from brands they believed contained product deals or sales.

22

be plumbers, electricians, or even music producers, professions that don’t necessarily require a college education.

Retired Hillhouse history teacher and frequent Board of Education meeting attendee Robert Gibson (pictured, at left) offered one specific initiative that the city and the school board can launch relatively easily—and that would have an outsized impact bridging the divide between the classroom and students’ home lives.

“We should have a campaign for parent empowerment,” he said. “Parents need to understand that they have power, that they have influence” over how their children are being educated.

He said that those schools that have the best teachers, the best support staff, the best resources and the best quality of education tend to be the ones with the most engaged parents.

The city and school board should develop and promote a program that trains parents on how to be public education advocates, that encourages them to come to school board meetings, that shows them how staying in touch with teachers and principals can benefit their children’s education. ‘We need to keep our eyes and ears open,” he said.

Yari Ijeh and Larry Laconi (both pictured) were tapped to read five of the group’s suggestions to the larger audience as Nearing and Levey-Burden and a handful of volunteers sought to write down a handful of ideas that emerged from each group’s breakout discussion.

“Our conversations went everywhere from making sure that we have social workers, nurses, and librarians,” Ijeh said, “to making sure that there’s paper and materials and books for all of the classrooms.”

She stressed that the district needs to do more to recruit and retain teachers of color, and to offer racial justice and implicit bias training for teachers already in the system.

The city school system should establish more and deeper community partnerships for skilled trades education, she added.

“If we’re literally building our city,” she said, “can our students be a part of that building? Not all of our students are on the college track and would take advantage of the New Haven Promise [scholarship program]. So could the New Haven Promise offer other opportunities for them as well?”

Nearing, Levey-Burden, and Elicker ended the meeting by thanking everyone for their curiosity, for their passion, for coming out to a nearly three-hour meeting on a Saturday morning to discuss how to improve the quality of life in this city for all residents.

“You people have huge networks,” said, “so please, please, please go out into your networks and ask other people what they think the direction of the city should be. And bring that back.”

Con’t from page 03

Civil Rights Harm

partment of Public Health, New Haven is home to 314 lead poisoned children, 281 of whom are poisoned at elevated blood lead levels between 5 µg/dL and 15 µg/ dL. While current city law defines lead poisoning as a single blood test of 5 µg/dL, the state threshold for lead poisoning is a single blood test of 20 µg/dL or two blood tests within 90 days of 15 µg/dL. Of those 300-plus children, the amended complaint reads, at least 70 percent are black or Hispanic. The lawyers argue that, in Connecticut, black children under six years old are two times more likely and Hispanic children under six are 1.5 times more likely to be lead poisoned (i.e., to have EBLs at or above 5 µg/dL) than are white children.

Furthermore, the amended complaint continues, 81 percent of the city’s 37,000 renters live in houses built before 1978 and 47 percent live in housing that was built before 1939 “when the usage of lead paint was most pervasive.”

“The percentage of renters living in such housing is greater in neighborhoods that are predominantly Black and/or Hispanic,” the amended complaint continues.

“86% of the renters in the neighborhoods known as the Hill, Newhallville, and Fair Haven live in housing that was built before 1979; 62% of such renters live in housing built before 1939.”

Legal aid filed still another legal motion in the class action complaint Monday afternoon, arguing that state Superior Court Judge Claudia Baio should extend the preliminary injunction that previous housing court Judge John Cordani granted to the case’s two primary child plaintiffs this summer to the entire class of 300-plus children living in New Haven who are under six years old and have a blood lead level above 5 µg/dL. The preliminary injunction applications asks the court to order the city to conduct full lead paint hazard inspections and then issue subsequent lead hazard abatement orders when necessary.

“To the extent that Defendants have not determined if their homes have lead paint hazards by conducting a comprehensive inspection of their homes,” the motion reads, “and have failed to issue abatement orders to the property owners where such hazards are found to exist, the City is violating its Ordinances, the children in the plaintiff class are suffering irreparable injury and the balance of hardships tips decidedly in favor of the plaintiff class.”

Per the filing schedule outlined by the court earlier this month, the city has until December to respond to legal aid’s latest preliminary injunction application.

City-hired attorneys did, however, file a separate surreply on Monday, opposing legal aid’s request that Cordani’s initial class certification from this summer exclude lead-poisoned children living in city housing authority-owned properties.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Your regional non-profit home for the performing arts, film & education

This Holiday Season...

ARTS FUNDING NEIGHBORHOOD CULTURAL VITALITY GRANT

call 203-946-7172 for info

KEB’ MO’

JINGLE BELL JAMBOREE

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2019 • 8:00 PM This fall, Keb’ Mo’ will embark on a holiday tour, Jingle Bell Jamboree, which will feature the four-time Grammy-award winning contemporary Blues and Americana artist performing songs off of Moonlight, Mistletoe, And You. Keb’s opener is the young R&B/ Soul artist and star of America’s Got Talent, Alicia Michilli.

ATLANTIC BROADBAND 2020 WINTER CINEMA SERIES PASSES ON SALE NOW!

grant DEADLINES Letter of Intent: November 20 | Application: December 18 INFORMATION SESSIONS Oct. 21 - Wilson Library @ 5:00pm Oct. 24 - Fair Haven Library @ 5:30pm Oct. 29 - Mitchell Library@ 5:00pm

2020

grant writing @ stetson library Nov. 6, 13, 20 6:00pm-8:00pm Nov. 23 10:00am-4:00pm

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

WWW.GARDEARTS.ORG | 860.444.7373 X1 | 325 STATE STREET | NEW LONDON, CT 23

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 20, 2019 - November 26, 2019

Health insurance plans that are just right for your right now.

Whether youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the first generation or the third, we connect you to quality health insurance plans that help you protect your health â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and your finances. Find the plan that fits your needs at AccessHealthCT.com.

Financial help is still available.

Open Enrollment ends December 15.

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