Candidates in the city’s most hotly contested race split over an issue that has divided their neighborhood before — the new Hooker School.
The argument, at an East Rock candidates’ forum Monday night, centered on a gate on Everit Street behind the new 3 – 8 school. The school is set to open in December in the East Rock neighborhood.
Green Ward 10 Alderman Allan Brison (at left in photo), who lives on Everit, wants to keep the gate closed so that parents don’t drop their kids off on the residential street. Democrat Justin Elicker (at right in photo), who’s challenging him, wants the gate open so kids can walk to school.
The two candidates face off on Election Day, Nov. 3. Voting takes place at Wilbur Cross High School.
The Hooker gate (pictured) provoked some of the liveliest discussion at an hour-long candidates’ forum Monday night at the East Rock Magnet School. The debate drew a crowd of over 60 people, a record for the East Rock Central Management Team, which hosted the event at its regular monthly meeting.
Jonathan Knisely raised the Hooker issue during a question and answer period. He lives on Everit Street, a stone’s throw from the back entrance of the new Hooker School. Knisely said he worries that when the school opens, parents will use his street as a place to pick up and drop off their kids by car.
The topic reopened a rift in the neighborhood between those who welcomed the Worthington Hooker School to its new Whitney Avenue site, and those who fought vehemently against it. A group of Everit Street neighbors took the city to court over the matter; a years-long acrimonious fight ended with the state Supreme Court ruling in the city’s favor in August 2007.
Elicker (pictured) tackled the question first. School policy is for students to be picked up and dropped off at the school’s front entrance at 691 Whitney Ave., he said. From what he gathers, the controversy boils down to the gate behind the school.
On one hand, some neighbors claim the city made a promise to keep that gate closed. Elicker said he hasn’t seen that in writing anywhere. Other neighbors contend no promise was made.
“Let’s keep our eye on the ball,” said Elicker, a Yale School of Management student, employing a phrase he’d use a few times throughout the evening. Neighbors’ concern isn’t about the gate; it’s about having safe streets, he argued.
Elicker said he supports a “walkable, bikable” neighborhood where students can safely walk to school. He suggested the school start the year off with the gate open, then address any traffic problems if they come up.
Brison disagreed. There’s “no way” for the gate to be open and the traffic to be calm, he charged. Brison lives at 115 Everit, about six houses away from the school’s back entrance.
“The school decided all of a sudden to try to open the gate,” he charged. He said other schools — including the Foote School, “little” (K‑2) Hooker on Canner Street, and the swing space at St. Stanislaus on State Street — have never gotten a handle on traffic.
Once the gate is open to students, he argued, it “will be very hard to close that gate.”
Across the table from Knisely, another neighbor weighed in on the latest Hooker battle. Matt Ranelli, a Hooker parent who lives on Willow Street, said the argument shouldn’t be about promises, but about the merits of the gate. He’s among a group of parents who want to start a “walking bus” for kids who have younger siblings at little Hooker. The group would meet at little Hooker, then walk about three blocks to the new 3 – 8 Hooker via Everit Street, which is considered a more pleasant, safer route to school than Whitney Avenue.
Why shouldn’t these kids be allowed to walk to school? asked Ranelli. “Why should they be penalized for inchoate fears” about traffic on Everit?
Brison suggested that the walking bus go down Whitney instead of on Everit. The students have to get to the front of the school anyway, he argued. He said he has met with Everit Street neighbors “for quite some time.” The street has changed since the last Hooker battle, he said. Some folks moved away, and now there are quite a few Hooker School families.
“We want this school to work,” Brison said. He said his neighbors have reached a near-unanimous position about the gate.
“Almost all of us do not want that gate open,” Brison argued, tapping his hand on the table for emphasis. It was his most spirited delivery of the evening. He said his neighbors are the ones who’ll be the ones most inconvenienced by the closed gate, because they won’t be able to walk into the back entrance of Hooker.
Elicker sided with the walking bus.
“I think we should be encouraging people to walk to school,” he said. If the commuters get out of control, he suggested bringing in traffic directors or ticketing offending cars. “The key is to address the traffic issue,” he said.
The topic stirred some discussion between two sides of the Hooker fight. Paulette Cohen, a Brison supporter and one of the group of parents who fought the Hooker school project, took Ranelli to the side of the room to continue discussing the matter.
The moment illustrated what appears to be a lasting division in the neighborhood over the Hooker school. That division appears to be reflected in the placement of campaign lawn signs: Brison signs dominate streets where neighbors resisted the new Hooker School; Elicker’s flourish on others.
Brison was praised in 2007 for brokering peace between the two camps. As the city awaited a ruling from the state Supreme Court on the Hooker case, he asked both sides to agree to put the fight behind them, no matter what the justices ruled.
Safe Streets
Monday’s Hooker discussion touched on an issue at the forefront of the race — safer streets.
Elicker focused on the topic in opening remarks. As a co-leader of the Friends of East Rock Park, he’s successfully lobbied for five new crosswalks at English and Farnum Drives as well as trail-crossing signs, he said. He also helped lead a neighborhood forum on the Whitney Avenue redo.
If elected, he said, he’d address traffic questions such as: Why are there no crosswalks outside Wilbur Cross High School? And no bike lanes or coordinated traffic lights on Whitney Avenue?
Brison said the issue’s important to him, too. Brison said he helped get in-street pedestrian signs on Orange Street. He and Elicker both took credit for lobbying for a speed monitor on Willow Street. Brison said he’d like to serve on the Complete Streets Committee to guide a new citywide policy for safer streets. He’s working on getting Burn Street narrowed to reduce speed, he said.
Several questions focused on Elicker’s ability to serve in office as a student.
For those who questioned whether he’ll have time to be alderman while he’s in school, Elicker said he’s already spending 60 hours per week on the campaign. “I’m a bad student,” he jokingly confessed.
Brison said he has no doubt his opponent has the “best of intentions,” but he questioned whether Elicker would stick around once he graduates in May with a joint degree in business and forestry from Yale. Elicker might split town when “opportunities open up all over the world,” he charged. He said Elicker has nothing to tie him here, like a home, family or a job.
Elicker said he plans to find a job he can walk or bike to, so he can live in Ward 10 and “realize my dream, which is politics.” He said he’s already been around the world: He spent years abroad in Taiwan, Spain, and Hong Kong. He moved to New Haven to be close to his family in New Canaan. He said he’s committed to staying in New Haven long-term. “I’m back, and I’m sticking around,” he said.
Elicker released a list of campaign endorsements Monday morning from a range of neighbors up to top Democrats. The list includes U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, State Sen. Martin Looney and state Rep. Cam Staples. He’s also endorsed by the local Democratic Party.
Brison is endorsed by the Green Party and UNITE HERE Local 34, the union of clerical and technical workers at Yale. He declined comment for this story when approached after the forum. “I don’t have time,” he said.
Some previous stories on the Ward 10 race:
• Lone Green Alderman Faces Challenge
• Brison Calls For Noise Barriers
• Greens’ Leaders Split On Strategy
• Candidates Split On Schools
• Elicker Swears Off Mayor’s Money
• Campaign $$ Seeds Races