“Where We Become Americans”

An urban renewal ​“refugee,” the son of a cop, looked back five decades at what happened to American cities — and saw where he wants his city to head next. The destination: College, not a highway exit ramp.

That refugee, Mayor John DeStefano, took a break Tuesday from the day-to-day minutiae of running New Haven to examine the big picture.

He also previewed Part II of his ​“New Haven Promise,” the latest feature of the city’s school reform drive. It includes a new ​“College Corps” of volunteers to work with families before their kids enter kindergarten through high school to make sure they can qualify for college scholarships. (That Part II will be unveiled in full at a 3 p.m. press conference Wednesday followed by a public forum on the attendant issues with national experts in Room 208 of Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center at 53 Wall St.)

In a speech as a Yale ​“Chubb Fellow” Tuesday, DeStefano detailed his family’s path fleeing the Urban Renewal era highways as ​“refugees” from State Street to Morris Cove; how he saw Yale move from being ​“apart” from New Haven to becoming ​“a part” of New Haven in the 1990s under President Rick Levin; and the fact that he was able to pay his $4,000 undergraduate UConn tuition in full by working summers and school breaks.

Now college tuition has become out of reach for too many young strivers — just as a college degree has become far more important than in past for anyone who’d rather have a job than be in jail.

That all led DeStefano to conclude that school reform is the key to reviving cities and helping them recapture this historic mission — not as places primarily to build buildings and highways, but as centers of opportunity, the factory of American values and community.

The historic overview led DeStefano to focus on the latest centerpiece of his school reform drive: Promise New Haven (“a promise to build something more ambitious than any urban renewal project.”) Last week he and Yale announced that the program will guarantee up to full college tuition for city high schoolers who keep a 3.0 average and show up to class. This week, DeStefano continued, he and Yale are unveiling part two of promise: The ​“New Haven Promise Partnership.”

DeStefano is formally announcing that new ​“Partnership” Wednesday afternoon. The idea is to start early — with kids and their families — to make sure enough high schoolers will eventually qualify for those college scholarships.

The Partnership will create a ​“College Corps” of volunteers, including local graduates. They will go ​“door to door” to work with families to get their kids ready for college. It will help applicants with the nitty gritty of applying, including how to write essays.

The Partnership will also develop a new pre‑K through 8th grade curriculum aimed to prepare kids better for high school and therefore college, and train high school teachers and a local ​“College Corps” of local undergraduate volunteers to guide students through the college process. (The details appear at the end of the speech below.)

DeStefano’s Chubb speech drew three conclusions about cities based on New Haven’s experience:

• ​“Always define community, and citizenship, in the broadest fashion possible to include everyone.”
• ​“In New Haven we were building highways when we should have been building our human capital.”
• ​“Cities are about a lot more than apizza and hamburgers …Cities create the middle class, our markets, and our competitiveness .. where we become Americans.”
—It’s not the buildings and highways we construct that matter. It’s the people and community we construct.

That last line is a paraphrase. Read for the precise words DeStefano wrote for his Chubb address.

REMARKS OF JOHN DESTEFANO, JR.
CHUBB FELLOWSHIP
NOVEMBER 16, 2010

Thanks

Let me begin by thanking Jeff Brenzell and the entire timothy dwight community for the opportunity to talk with you over the next several days. More than an honor, it is a pleasure to be with so many friends of mine, our city, and, our great university.

Thanks also to Bruce Alexander. Less for his introduction and more for his friendship. And, for his and chris Alexander’s commitment to their adopted city. Unlike me, Bruce and chris are here by choice, rather than birth. And I am grateful for all that they do for the city.

Thank you Bruce.

And it is about the city, and our civic infrastructure, that I have thought about, and prepared for today. And most particularly about how college-going: ensuring that New Haven public school students have the aspiration for college; are college ready once they matriculate into college; and, therefore connected to life long earning, is the key wealth creation, violence reduction, and, city building opportunity of our time.

Civic infrastructure

So first, civic infrastructure. And by that I mean the things around which we organize our lives, and the lives of our community. Now, not all lessons are learned in the classroom, so let me tell you how I came to learn about civic infrastructure.

I am a life long city resident who grew up in the morris cove neighborhood of New Haven. In fact, my family moved to the cove in 1960 as that special kind of New Haven refugee. Now we were not escaping political or religious persecution. Rather, it was the kind of forced relocation so common to america in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and which was so particularly destructive to New Haven, and so many other cities.

We were refugees from New Haven urban renewal. I‑91highway construction took my grandmother’s house where 4 households and three generations had lived together for decades. Lived together, if not in peace and harmony, at least in relative co-existence. We lived on east street, between state and humphrey. Here’s a photo of my grandmother’s house.

It’s now an I‑91 highway overpass. Our neighborhood and the social and economic dynamics that derive from a dense, urban neighborhood were destroyed. It no longer exists.

In our family’s instance, as happened in neighborhoods across New Haven, attempts to build the ​‘new’ civic infrastructure, actually destroyed it. First lesson learned about civic infrastructure? The cure can be worse than the disease.
Anyway, Morris Cove is on the other side of the Quinnipiac bridge from here, so growing up, I never had much occasion to get to this side of the city. In fact, it wasn’t until I was 13 or 14 years old that I first came on to this campus. I had three DeStefano cousins who attended Yale college and I came over one day with my father to visit.

Now as a New Haven police officer of his time, my father had rather definite views of Yale college. And its inhabitants. So by virtue of both parental inclination and mediocre academics, Yale was not a factor in that part of my future. And truth be told Yale seemed to my younger eyes, and in fact was, a very different part of New Haven.

In fact apart from New Haven, rather than a‑part of New Haven. You could see it. And, you could feel it. The idea that the university was an integral piece of the whole of the city, simply did not exist back then.

That has changed in the years since my first, and today’s, visit to campus. That change is a good thing for which Rick Levin, and so many others, are much to be credited. And it is, I am certain, a thing that we will never, must never, change back to.

Our future is not just bound up in one another, it is the same future. Lesson learned? Always define community, and citizenship, in the broadest fashion possible to include everybody.

Now the next part of my lesson about civic infrastructure did occur at school – as part of my own college going experience, which was at the university of connecticut. Unfortunately, those were the days when Yale could still defeat us in football and basketball. Happily, here too, things have changed for the better.

Anyway, an enduring source of amazement for me about attending UConn in the late 1970’s, was the tuition. Or really, the lack of it. Tuition, fees, books, room and board? $4,000 a year. I was able to earn it during the summer and winter break. And didn’t think anything of it.

Nor do I ever recall a time when going to college was a question. We were middle class, second generation americans. And we were going to be first generation college-goers. Not really a topic of discussion for mom and dad.

In those days, if you worked hard, if you displayed the aspiration and the persistence, the means existed for college and life long earning. But since that time, since my time:
college is not nearly as affordable for most americans; the nation has fallen from first, in the percentage of our population who are college graduates; and at the same time, a college degree is more essential than ever, for life long success.

In New Haven we were building highways, when we first should have been building our human capital.

The academic success of kids, their college readiness, and their persistence in college going, is the moon shot of our time. It is the best wealth creation and violence reduction strategies that we can ever hope to put into motion.

Consider three sets of data:
(number of employed people 25 years and over by educational attainment) first, since 1992 the number of americans employed with high school degrees or less, has fallen from 47 million, to 44 million. A drop of 7 %. at the same time the number of americans employed with some college or more, has risen from 53 million to 78 million. An increase of 47%. the numbers are clear, if you want a job, get to college.

Second,
(employment rate for people 25 years and over by educational attainment) the more education you have, the less likely you are to be unemployed. A lot less likely.

And finally,
(incarceration by education level)
the higher the level of educational attainment, the less likely you are to be in jail. If we want a safe city, we will dramatically increase college going among our young people.

The civic infrastructure to rebuild a resurgent america runs straight through the front doors of our nations universities and colleges. And most likely those front doors are to be found in america’s cities. So what about cities?

Cities

Now the last time that I gave a speech of some length about cities, was in 2003. in fact, it was November 2003 and at the time I was president of the national league of cities. I was at the national press club in washington d.c., and the talk was being broadcast live on C‑Span, which really didn’t mean anything, until we got to the last question.

Have you ever been to or seen one of these press club events? After the speech the president of the press club collects questions from the audience on these little index cards, and asks the questions to the speaker. Anyway I’m out of town, so I’m being relatively frank and loose in my responses. I mean, who really back in New Haven is watching C‑Span?

Anyway we get to the final question. And, it’s the question that any New Haven politician wants to avoid, because it requires a response of transparency, and conviction, on a matter that really divides people in the city.

Last question at this talk about cities: ​“so mayor, is it Sally’s, or Pepe’s”?

Now I froze. This, this was a question of significance and consequence!

“Is it Sally’s” (Photo of Sally’s)

“Or, is it Pepe’s” (Photo of Pepe’s)

now seriously, I ask you to think about that question. Is that what we are about as a city – great apizza? It’s sort of like you can get a hamburger here (photo of generic McDonalds), or, you can come to New Haven, and get this (photo of Louie’s).

now it’s not about apizza and hamburgers. Really that’s just a shorthand for how we, and how others, see the city. It is our nickname, but it’s not who we are. In the end, cities are about a lot more than apizza and hamburgers.
Let me explain.

Cities are the wealth multipliers of our nation. Cities create the middle class, our markets and our competitiveness. They have done this generation, after generation, in america.

Cities test and define our values as a nation, and as a people. Cities are the place, the place we come together to determine our potential and possibilites as individuals. It is the place that enables us to do together for ourselves, that which we cannot do alone. And in the process social and economic mobility occur as wealth and personal development accrue.

Cities, when married to sound civic infrastructure, are the community highway we build to perfect ourselves and in which we become a nation bound up in a shared set of values. In short, where we become americans.

Now the most poetic description of cities I ever heard spoken was in 1988, just a few blocks from here at commons. The speaker said:

“…cities are viewed as the most stimulating and valuable centers of human activity because when…disparate energies are harnessed, extraordinary achievement flourishes.

Think of specific cities great and small, and much more than commerce and law and trade will come to mind, though they will; but so will the names of great hospitals and libraries and newspapers, and universities; so also will theaters and museums and opera houses and restaurants and gallaries and cathedrals. So will stadia and arenas.

In short, not simply commerce, but culture, not simply work but leisure — - not simply, as the romans said, negotium but otium – not simply that which enobles us but also that which perfects us — - such has forever been the purpose of a city. To make us not the best that nature can make us, but the best that we, humankind adding art to nature, can make us.”

so said Bart Giamatti, the former president of Yale before he got an important and meaningful job, as commissioner of baseball.

Now at first glance one might think that Giamatti was talking about cities in the context of the built space. That it’s about:

“…great hospitals and libraries and newspapers, and universities; so also will theaters and museums and opera houses and restaurants and gallaries and cathedrals. So will stadia and arenas.”

when really, it’s about this:

“…cities are viewed as the most stimulating and valuable centers of human activity because when…disparate energies are harnessed, extraordinary achievement flourishes….

…to make us not the best that nature can make us, but the best that we, humankind adding art to nature, can make us.”

you see the built space, like the apizza and the hamburger, is incidental. The civic infrastructure that counts is not the building capital, it’s the human capital. And that’s what cities are, and always have been, about. And, if we are going to remain a great nation, that is what our future must be all about.

New Haven Agenda

Over the last two years, New Haven has been engaged in a powerful and dramatic effort at public school change. And last week Yale university and the city took a big step forward on behalf of young people across this city, and, for the city of which this university is a part.

Last week the New Haven promise scholarship program was launched. Promise is the college going component of New Haven’s school change initiative.

The individual benefits of increasing the number of New Haven college graduates is astounding. Students with college degrees are almost four times less likely to be unemployed than high school dropouts, and, have annual wages that are 2.5 times more on average.

If New Haven promise moves the needle on its three goals: cultivating an aspiration for college education in New Haven public schools; building community and parental engagement; and,
growing economic development in the city of New Haven by just 1%, we could potentially see a talent dividend, as calculated by ceos for cities, worth $647 million in the New Haven metro area every year.

New Haven Promise

So last week our city made a promise to build something more ambitious than any urban renewal project. Last tuesday we told our New Haven public school students that if they did two things:
work hard academically, graduating from high school with a 3.o gpa; and, display good civic behavior. Meaning: have a positive disciplinary record, complete a 40 hour community service requirement, and, meet 90% attendance or better,

if they do those two things, New Haven promise will fund their tuition to any in-state public university or college. Period.
Now this is not a hand out. Promise is not designed or intended to be an entitlement. Students will have to work hard to earn their grades and stay focused on positive behavior and good choices. But do those two things, and promise will see to it that they have the resources to compete successfully anywhere.

And if we, if our city does this, and does nothing else, we will fail. Fail just as large as urban renewal failed in remaking our city 50 years ago.

It is not enough to put a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, for the kids who are going to reach it anyway.

Promise will only succeed if we make all New Haven kids be the best they can be. It can only succeed if we put in place the infrastructure, the supports, and the tools for a super highway, not just a limited access road for a very few who already know the way. Only with these supports, only with a robust civic support structure, can these kids, and our city, be the very best it can be.

The promise scholarship program announced last week must be accompanied by: the development of the aspiration in all New Haven kids and their families that a college degree is a pre-requisite to a successful life; that this is something that these kids and their families can do; that we as a community are going to work hard together and as necessary, to see that these kids have every chance of making it to, and ultimately through, college; and that promise is a core component of a radical and uncompromising commitment to a broader school change initiative.

New Haven Promise Partnership

A week ago today, we announced the New Haven promise scholarship and tomorrow we will announce the New Haven promise partnership.

The partnership will be the umbrella of funders, organizations, employers and people who will organize themselves as a community of adults around promise kids and their families.

The partnership will work on our streets and in our schools. It will be phased in over the next 5 years as we phase in the scholarship program, commencing with pilot initiatives this coming spring.

New Haven promise partnership will launch with the following three supports.

First, the partnership will work with classroom teachers in the high schools by guiding students through the college process. These supports for our high school students will be provided by college summit and will focus on academic excellence; self-advocacy; career to college connections; college 101; and, financial awareness.

The partnership will work with New Haven promise to increase the number of promise scholarships awarded to graduating seniors, as well as increasing the college enrollment rates, college persistence rates, and college graduation rates.

Second, the partnership will message and develop curriculum for our students starting in pre-kindergarten and continuing through 8th grade, before transitioning to the even more intensive high school curriculum and supports.

The pre‑k to 8 curriculum will seek to cultivate an aspiration for a college education as soon as the district receives kids. It will take into consideration non-cognitive learning and incorporate key milestones that students and their parents must meet in order to better prepare them for high school.

Finally, New Haven promise will unleash ​‘CollegeCorps’. CollegeCorps will enlist all adults and organizations in New Haven, all who share promise’s mission on behalf of these kids, in two missions.

First, ​‘CollegeCorps in the high schools’ will be trained on college 101 curriculum and college essay writing skills so volunteers may further support college summit’s work in the high schools; and,

second, ​‘CollegeCorps in the community’, consisting of local undergraduate students fresh from the college-going process and partnered with city adults, will canvass our communities to ignite the aspiration and expectation for a college education in the parents of all our k‑8 students. We will go door, to door.

Together these efforts will initiate, nurture and ultimately support the college going aspiration and work of promise kids and their families.

New Haven promise must be more than a scholarship program if it is to fulfill its mission.

Conclusion

Ultimately promise must be a citywide commitment, a citywide civic enterprise that organizes New Haven’s adults around its young people. An enterprise centered on traditional values of hard work, persistence and initiative.

And, New Haven promise will be about everybody who lives in New Haven: regardless of income;
regardless of immigration status; and,
regardless of what past family history has told kids about what they can or can’t be.

Perhaps you know of the concept of ​“tikum olam” to heal the universe. That god created the universe, but did not finish it, or, make it perfect. And that therefore we, each of us, have an obligation toward improving the world. That this task of healing each other, is a spiritual, moral, and an individual conception of justice. And that it is in this mending mission, that lends meaning to our existence.

Ultimately promise is more than an investment in these kids. Ultimately it is about us. About our optimism in ourselves, and, our own future. It is about rejecting being a city of victims, and a choice to be a city of america’s future. A city with an ascendant future.

The New Haven promise scholarship and the New Haven promise partnership are two strong legs that will speed us on that journey. A journey of optimism and accomplishment.

It is why we are confident that even in the worst of economic times, it is the best of times to test our character, our determination, and, our conviction.

It is the best of times to succeed.

Thank you so much for your time this afternoon.