Markeshia Ricks File Photo
Fair Haven doesn’t need a change in leadership, Santiago Berrios-Bones argues.
As he runs for a second full term as alder for Fair Haven’s Ward 14, Berrios-Bones said in an interview at Dunkin Donuts on Ferry Street that people should vote for him because they need stability in their political leadership, “a person you can go to and continue with the same message as before.”
Berrios-Bones faces Thomas Burwell in a Democratic primary for the position on Sept. 16, one of eight primaries across town that day.
Before he filled the Ward 14 seat mid-term a year and a half ago, “there was instability, one after the other,” Berrios-Bones said. “Finally, I’ve been able to be here for one term and a half.”
His platform, he said, is the same as it’s always been. He read off the main points from his campaign flier — to make Fair Haven “a safer neighborhood, a smarter neighborhood, a working neighborhood, a caring neighborhood.”
He has pushed to have more police walking the beat and police cars patrolling the neighborhood, as well as money for after-school programs. Berrios-Bones is Puerto Rican; he said that helps him connect with the neighborhood’s many Spanish speakers. Latinos and other racial minorities see some of the highest unemployment rates in the city, and he said he has supported the creation of the job-placement agency New Haven Works. (Opponent Burwell does not speak Spanish.)
Berrios-Bones said that as the chair of the Board of Alders Human Services Committee, he helped direct federal funds to the neighborhood’s senior facilities so they could “continue their services to the community.” When asked exactly what services senior centers needed to strengthen, he said he didn’t know: “Whatever services they were already doing.”
When asked about how he would address specific problems in the neighborhood, such as lowering high rates of prostitution and attracting more tourists to the neighborhood, Berrios-Bones referred back to his flier and did not elaborate on the slogans.
Pressed, he said that with an increase in police presence, prostitution “will take care of itself. The police will take care of that.”
In June, Berrios-Bones boycotted the Democratic Ward Committee’s endorsement hearing. The Democratic Town Committee ended up making no endorsement in the race.
Burwell has criticized his opponent for not being responsive to his constituents during his time as alder. “People haven’t seen him in the neighborhood,” he said. “Seniors want someone they can talk to.”
When asked for a response to the criticism, Berrios-Bones said he has been “fighting for our neighborhood and been a leader in the Board of Alders. I am open to people who want to talk to me.”
Exactly how has he facilitated that communication? Berrios-Bones repeated: “I am open to everybody.”
Berries-Bones said he has been canvassing six days a week for between two to four hours each day.
He said he has no new goals for the upcoming term. “I will just continue bringing the message that I set out. There’s only so much I can do. I cannot promise the sky to people.”
Previous coverage of the Sept. 16 Democratic alder primaries:
• Burwell Confronts Language Barrier
• Robinson-Thorpe Ready For Primary Fight
• 8 Primaries On Tap