Bella Vista Aldermanic Race Catches Fire

The race for alderwoman at the Bella Vista senior complex has a new issue to add to how to get bocce courts resurfaced: How to get absentee ballots in time for next week’s primary election to over 120 people are temporarily homeless due to a fire.

The fire hit Bella Vista, the massive senior citizen housing complex in Fair Haven Heights, last month. Over 120 people are now displaced and living in motels, according to Marissa DiStefano, the head of resident services.

The fire displacement could have a big impact on the Democratic mayoral and aldermanic primary coming up on Sept. 10.

“We need to get them absentee ballots,” DiStefano said. ​“I’m working on it.”

Ward 11, where Bella Vista comprises most of the voting population, cast a total of 779 votes in the aldermanic election two years ago.

The over 120 displaced residents form a significant portion of the voters being courted by the two aldermanic candidates in Sept. 10’s Democratic Party aldermanic primary: incumbent Barbara Constantinople and challenger Patty DePalma.

Both candidates live in Bella Vista, Constantinople in Building D and DePalma in Building E. They’re vying to represent Ward 11, a narrow sliver of New Haven on the northeast border.

If all politics is local, then Ward 11 may be the most political, since it’s the most localized. Most of the ward’s voters live on top of each other within the handful of residential towers that make up Bella Vista.

In such close quarters, an aldermanic race can get personal, fast. A recent visit to DePalma’s ninth-floor apartment found her upset about rumors that some Constantinople supporters had allegedly been spreading about her after a Nintendo Wii bowling event on Thursday.

DePalma, who’s 57 and has lived in Bella Vista for over 15 years, was joined in her apartment by Dhrupad Nag, a recent UConn grad who’s working for Take Back New Haven, the slate of aldermanic candidates organized by downtown Alderwoman Doug Hausladen. DePalma is a member of the slate, which presents itself as an alternative to the labor-backed majority on the Board of Aldermen.

“They contacted me,” DePalma said of Take Back New Haven. ​“They were right on the ball. They made sense.”

“What good are they?” incumbent Alderwoman Constantinople, a 73-year-old former waitress, said of Take Back New Haven. ​“We need the unions. The unions get us jobs. We’ve got to work with the union.”

Constantinople said she is running with the support of Yale’s unions.

DePalma said she’s not opposed to unions: ​“I just don’t think it should be all one-sided.”

DePalma, a fast-talking self-described ​“Fair Haven Italian,” was a Democratic committee co-chair in Ward 11 for four years. She’s battling back from a cancer diagnosis last December.

“I like to stay active,” she said. ​“I’m an advocate for the handicapped and the seniors.”

DePalma said she worked closely with former Alderman Robert Lee — ​“I was his left hand.” — and helped put a traffic light at the bottom of the hill leading to Bella Vista.

Asked about the campaign’s big issues, DePalma said the Bella Vista’s bocce courts need more stone put down. She said the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill ends abruptly, making it impossible to get to Walgreen’s for people, like her, who use scooters. DePalma said people are upset that Bella Vista’s Bank of America branch closed.

“Barbara Constantinople has been alderwoman for two straight years and has done absolutely nothing for people here,” DePalma said.

“We’re getting the streets fixed. We’re doing the trees,” said Constantinople. She said she got the school bus to come up the hill to drop kids off, so that their grandparents don’t have to walk up and down the steep road, especially in winter.

Recently, Constantinople said, she’s been visiting all the fire-displaced seniors in various motels in Branford and West Haven.

“How busy have I been!” she said. ​“There’s so many problems [for the displaced]. The food was the biggest problem. Then they got meals on wheels. People have been cooking and bringing food to them. Everybody’s pitching in.”

Constantinople listed other accomplishments and things she’s working on as alderwoman: Getting stop signs on Russel Street. Working on installing a traffic light at Hemingway Street and Quinnipiac Avenue. Working fellow aldermen to promote community policing. She said she’d like to find more places for children in the ward to play.

“I’m hoping that whoever becomes the next mayor will help me get the senior center back and work with me with the seniors, which is very important,” she said. ​“You get to be a certain age and you get thrown to the wind, you know.”

DePalma said she’s counting on her connections at Bella Vista to carry the election. ​“My friends are my friends. I’ve been here forever.”

Asked about ward issues outside of the housing complex, DePalma said she doesn’t think there’s much going on. ​“We’re like our own village up here.”