Allan Appel Photo
Mayoral challengers Tony Dawson & Jeffrey Kerekes.
Make it cost at least as much to land your plane at Tweed as to park your car in downtown New Haven.
Expand the airport so that it provides job-producing regional service.
Or get those decibels down by shutting down airport expansion completely.
Those were some of the competing ideas pitched before about 40 Morris Covers as the East Shore Management Team hosted a mayoral and aldermanic forum Tuesday night in the cafeteria of the Nathan Hale School on Townsend Avenue.
Mayor John DeStefano and his four Democratic challengers drew lots to see who would speak first for five minutes each on five issues specified by the management team. Those issues were the condition of streets and sidewalks, drug activity, property taxes, parks, traffic and and noise, and the airport.
Candidates could speak on any aspect of those issues, and they did. The airport sparked some attentive listing as it has long been a divisive issue pitting citywide business interests against those of airplane-wary East Shore homeowners. Navigating that political divide has been a campaign ritual in New Haven for decades.
Mayor DeStefano, who went on first, flew right into the propellers of local homeowners with the declaration that the health of the city depends on jobs, many of which are being provided by larger companies such as Covidien, Knights of Columbus and HigherOne.
All these entities require better airport service to grow, he argued.
“All tell me that we need an airport with regional service, ” the mayor declared. That means planes going to and coming from at least four cities, not the current Philadelphia-only arrangement, he said.
He called attention to the success of the city in reducing what it pays to support Tweed, down from $2 million a year to the current $400,000. He also said that legislation passed in the recent session of the legislature in Hartford is paving the way to create an airport authority for the state. It would run the state’s airports “at no cost to the city. That’s the way to go,” he said.
Up next, mayoral candidate Tony Dawson took the opposite tack: “I would not expand it [the airport] any more than it is. We need to get those decibels down.”
Jeffrey Kerekes in general called for much more transparency in government, including a public posting of the sidewalk and street repairs citywide, so each neighborhood like East Shore can know where it stands.
Kerekes said he supports the airport but believes it must pay for itself. “The airport charges less to land than to park your car downtown,” he declared.
He said the fees to land should be raised to $20 from the current $2 to $8. That is not a lot for airplane owners, he argued: “98 percent are private planes.”
Mayoral candidates Robert Lee and Clifton Graves did not address the airport specifically.
Candidate Graves & moderator Walter Josephson.
Graves used another mode of transportation as a metaphor for the city’s general condition. “The ship [of the city] is adrift at sea with a captain who’ s lost his way,” Graves said. The crew, that is, the citizens, are upset and, most alarmingly the ship is leaking due to gaping holes caused by the financial and public safety issues.
Arlene DePino, the six-term incumbent Republican alderwoman representing Morris Cove’s Ward 18, spoke out of the most recent experience dealing with airport issues. She echoed Dawson’s unequivocal position: “I am opposed to expansion of current runways.”
She said constituents have asked her about a noise study being undertaken, whether that is a prelude to expansion. To the best of her knowledge, she said, the noise study is just that, and not a dire harbinger for those alarmed by possible airport expansion.
“Currently there are no plans to put a new airline at Tweed,” she reassured her audience.
Sarah Saiano in the red, with supporters.
One of DePino’s potential Democratic opponents in the general election had the last word on airports. Sarah Saiano is locked in Democratic primary battle with Salvatore DeCola. Decola didn’t show for the forum because he was attending an appreciation dinner for those who worked at the recent St. Bernadette’s Church fair.
Saiano called Tweed “a very large problem.”
She kept her prescription general. She said that “before any more changes the airport needs to consult with us. We need to demand our voices be heard downtown, before changes are made.”