Thomas Macmillan photo
Former Alder Andrea Jackson-Brooks.
Alders enthusiastically supported renaming the corner of Spring Street and Dewitt Street “Andrea Jackson-Brooks Way” after family, friends, former and current city officials, and even the former state lieutenant governor turned out to heap praise on the longtime former Hill alder and state representative.
A vote in favor of the renaming took place Thursday night during the regular monthly City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) Committee meeting in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
Thomas Breen photo
Thursday night’s CSEP hearing.
The committee alders unanimously recommended that the full board approve the renaming of that Hill street corner in honor of the woman who represented Ward 4 on the Board of Alders from 2000 to 2015, served two terms as state representative for New Haven’s 95th Connecticut General Assembly District, worked as former Mayor John DeStefano’s executive assistant, worked as an assistant in the state comptroller’s office, and chaired the board of the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center.
“That is nothing of the sacrifices she made for this town, this city, this state, her church,” Jackson-Brooks’s oldest son, Daniel Gant (pictured), said after listing his mother’s many accomplishments and positions of power and influence.
“I get choked up thinking about her because she has been a great lady for this city,” said William Bland, Jackson-Brooks’s neighbor of 40 years.
“If anybody had any neighbor better than my neighbor, let me know.”
The praise for Jackson-Brooks didn’t stop with just family and friends. It extended to local and state politicians who worked closely with her for decades — and saw first-hand the power of her commitment to public service.
“You can’t find a nicer person who worked harder and cared so much as Andrea,” said current state Democratic Party Chair and former Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman (pictured above at right with former Hill Alder, Board of Alders President, and Mayoral Chief of Staff Tomas Reyes).
Wyman said she first got to know Jackson-Brooks when they both served in the state House of Representatives. They worked even more closely together several years later when Jackson came to work for Wyman in the latter’s capacity as state comptroller.
“She would stand up for what she believed in, and you better have listened,” Wyman said.
“She loved her family and she loved this city. She was a fighter for this city.”
Reyes agreed.
He praised her for her community outreach and political organizing skills when she served as Ward 4’s Democratic Ward Committee co-chair during his time as an alder. “When I became president of the board, she became a state rep. And she did that job exceedingly well. She earned a reputation very quickly as a state representatives that could get things done, and would always remember where she came from.”
“If somebody merits this, it’s certainly Andrea Jackson-Brooks.”
“She was a special person,” said current Cornell Scott Hill Health Center Board Chair and city Commission on Equal Opportunities (CEO) Director
Angel Fernandez-Chavero.
He said he hopes this corner renaming will help Jackson-Brooks’s name and legacy live many generations into the future.
“She was one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met,” he said.
“Loving On The Community”
Committee alders also gave the thumbs up Thursday night to the proposed renaming of the corner of Greenwood Street and Legion Avenue in the Hill as “Bishop James and Pastor Tanzella Perkins Corner.”
Hill Alder Ron Hurt (pictured) and several members of the Mt. Calvary Holy Church Revival Center urged the alders to support such a renaming to celebrate the lives and legacies of the married couple that founded the Legion Avenue church in 1972. Click here to read more about that couple.
Hurt praised the Perkins’ for “the foundation that they laid preaching holiness, preaching righteousness, and loving on the community.”
“It’s still a safe home,” church member Trent Perkins said about Mt. Calvary. “It’s still a place where someone can be nourished.
“People can still come there and get encouragement. People can still come there and start over again.” He praised the founding couple as planting a seed in this church that is still growing in the Hill.
“It’s still flourishing, and the leaves are still green.”