After a spate of shootings in Dixwell and Newhallville, aldermen said they need more answers before they can publicly encourage New Haveners to take part in the Freddie Fixer Parade.
The parade, an annual event in New Haven’s African-American community for nearly half a century, is traditionally preceded by a week of community clean-up events in the Dixwell neighborhood. The parade returned last year after being canceled in 2008 amid fears of youth violence.
As organizers prepare for this year’s parade on May 16, new safety concerns have surfaced.
Those concerns arose Monday night, as the Board of Aldermen downgraded a resolution that would have encouraged New Haveners to take part in the parade and the associated cleanup on May 8. Citing safety concerns and a lack of information, aldermen slashed language that encouraged participation in the parade. Instead, they passed a resolution “supporting the Fredd[ie] Fixer Parade and related events,” but encouraging citywide participation only in the cleanup.
Aldermanic President Carl Goldfield introduced the original resolution at the request of the parade organizers. He said he thought it “pretty straightforward,” but in a Democratic caucus powwow before the full board meeting, he discovered that his colleagues disagreed.
Hill Alderwoman Jackie James-Evans told the Independent that after a rash of deadly gun violence in Dixwell and Newhallville, aldermen felt they needed more answers before endorsing the parade. She said that while parade organizers have spoken with Goldfield, they have not kept aldermen in the loop about their plans, not even those who represent the wards near the parade.
“We’re not aware of what is going on,” James-Evans said. “What is the security plan? … What is the police department planning to do?” Are they working with different groups to help stop the violence? She asked.
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Newhallville Alderman Charles Blango agreed aldermen don’t know enough about this year’s parade.
Some had heard it would be a peace march. Others were unclear about the parade route. To clear up those questions, aldermen plan to invite Freddie Fixer representatives to the Black and Hispanic Caucus meeting on Monday.
James-Evans said until those questions are answered, most aldermen didn’t feel comfortable encouraging folks to attend. So they downgraded the resolution accordingly.
After the meeting, Freddie Fixer Parade president Maurice Smith said politics were getting in the way of an annual tradition that is supposed to build community.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t want to see the parade go forward for all the wrong reasons,” he charged.
Smith said he has been open about the planning process from the start. He said he made arrangements far in advance: He met twice with the city, in February and April, to discuss logistics, which were sent out by letter to neighborhood aldermen.
The parade will begin at Dixwell Avenue and Morse Street in Hamden, and continue down Dixwell to Lake Place, he said. That’s the same route as last year — dramatically shorter than in previous years, in part because the parade organizers now have to pay for police overtime costs.
The parade committee was billed $22,000 for police overtime last year; Smith said his group is aiming to raise that much this year. (Donations can be made at the Freddie Fixer Parade website.)
He said he regrets that the fear of violence was overshadowing the purpose of the parade, which was to clean, beautify and take pride in the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods. The Freddie Fixer Parade was started in 1962 by environmentalist Ed Grant, who used to bring groups of neighbors out with brooms literally to clean up their streets. The fictional character of Freddie Fixer was created as a symbol for sweeping the streets.
The parade has gotten a bad reputation over the last few years for “being associated with violence,” Smith said. He contended that no violent incidents have taken place as a direct result of the parade; one shooting happened before the parade, but was related to a preexisting beef, he said. However, as more young people turn to guns to solve disputes, some groups have grown wary of participating.
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Waterbury’s Berkeley Knights drum squad.
Last year, the school district yanked school bands from the parade lineup amid safety concerns. In their absence, two drill teams (Waterbury’s Berkeley Knights, pictured here, and The Nation, pictured at the top of this story) kept the beat going strong.
Smith said he met with Mayor John DeStefano three weeks ago and asked him to invite the bands back. He said he hasn’t heard whether they’ll participate. Meanwhile, Smith is making an effort to reach out to church groups, who he said have been absent from the parade in past years.
In an attempt to encourage attendance from those church groups, Smith has declared this year’s event a “Stop The Violence Peace Rally & March.” He said he sent out word to neighborhood churches to try to get them involved. He is putting together a team of motorcyclists to take a “peace ride” through neighborhoods, advertising the parade’s anti-violence message.
Smith said concerns of violence at the parade this year are “a big hype” with little factual basis. The people involved in recent shootings in Newhallville and Dixwell were settling personal disputes, Smith contended: It wasn’t the type of violence where a shooter would fire indiscriminately into a crowd.
“We know that the concern about the parade is always going to be there,” Smith concluded, “but leaders need to step up and find out what’s going on in the neighborhoods,” address what’s causing the violence, and work to keep the tradition alive.