Abdussabur Dreams Of A Dope Dixwell

As takeout containers filled with fried rice, mac and cheese, chicken wings, and salad changed hands — along with business cards promoting the work of New Haven-raised Black entrepreneurs — Shafiq Abdussabur detailed his vision for bringing back the small-business glory days of the Dixwell Avenue of his youth.

Key ingredients to the revival he pitched include collaboration, public safety, local hiring, and making sure City Hall supports locally sourced ventures as soon as they get off the ground.

Abdussabur described those plans — and took that trip down memory lane — during a campaign stop on Saturday afternoon in the backyard patio of Dope N Delicious at 300 Dixwell Ave.

Seated under a red canopy in the restaurant’s fenced-in and tiki torch-decorated outdoor eating space, Abdussabur, a 56-year-old former police sergeant who is running for the Democratic nomination for mayor this year, hosted a conversation about a newly released policy platform focused on boosting the wellbeing of the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods. 

Over the course of the nearly two-hour event, he was joined by around 10 campaign supporters, friends, family members, and fellow Elm City-raised business owners.

The policy platform itself — which can be read in full here – is the second such neighborhood-specific program Abdussabur has dropped so far this election season. It covers topics ranging from creating a Dixwell corridor ​“traffic safety task force,” to having city government partner more closely with faith leaders of color, to creating a new Dixwell/Newhallville Special Services District for Dixwell Avenue similar to the business-boosting associations that already exist in Dwight, Fair Haven, Whalley, and downtown.

Saturday’s conversation focused much less on the details of that plan and more on Abdussabur’s memories of a Dixwell Avenue of his youth that thrived with Black-owned small businesses that one could patronize from Lake Place up to the Hamden town line. 

He compared those memories from several decades ago to, for example, the corner of Henry Street and Dixwell Avenue today — just outside of the doors of Dope N Delicious — which he criticized as beset by too many empty lots and too many corner stores selling goods that just aren’t good for the community.

“When you walk down Henry Street,” he asked, ​“where’s our flower shop? Where’s the nice bus stop?” Where can you get coffee and a donut, or some rice and salad and grilled chicken? Where are the beeping pedestrian crossing signals and clearly marked crosswalks?

“Where on Dixwell Avenue can you get a fruit salad?” he asked. Where’s the neighborhood grocery store? Where’s the Black-owned pizza shop?

Yes, he recognized, the Dixwell Plaza redevelopment that ConnCORP is soon about to undertake should transform the area for the better, filling out many of those needs Dixwell and Newhallville residents see now in the neighborhoods.

“But they’re not here yet,” he said. 

And so how can community leaders and elected officials — aspiring and current — work today to bring back the Dixwell Avenue he remembers from 50 years ago, where you could spend a whole Saturday walking up the avenue popping in to Unique Boutique, the Chicken Shack, Reaves Barber Shop, Country Market, Clarence the tailor’s, and elsewhere?

“We always knew Dixwell Avenue represented hope, dreams,” he said as those seated around him nodded in agreement and reminiscence. ​“Now it’s not there.”

He promised to make the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods the ​“Ground Zero” of his campaign, not just because this is the part of the city he grew up in, but also because ​“this is one of the most vulnerable communities in all of New Haven.”

Over the course of the afternoon, Abdussabur touched on a ​“train and sustain” program he would pursue if elected mayor. According to his campaign’s press release, that program would see the city provide ​“capacity-building grants to cover the needs of stable back office support, insurance coverages, and direct payroll assistance while developing staff through paid training and apprenticeships” for small businesses that hire New Haven residents for at least 12 months.

After talking about his personal history and memories and vision for the neighborhood, Abdussabur listened to those assembled around him to hear about their small-business stories in New Haven — and what they want and need and would like to see to help the historic Black commercial corridor of Dixwell Avenue thrive.

DeAri Allick, the 34-year-old founder and owner of Dope N Delicious, spoke about growing up in the Ashmun Street housing projects and opening his Dixwell Avenue restaurant three years ago with his daughter, Deari’e, who works as the head chef.

“If I could bring hope, collaboration, I’m with it,” he said about his goals for the restaurant. ​“I’m just all about rebuilding community.”

“Don’t forget,” piped in Sean Reeves, sitting to Allick’s right, ​“he’s hiring from within his community.” Everyone who works at Dope N Delicious lives in New Haven.

Abdussabur praised Allick’s business as the type of small, locally founded and run and supporting enterprise that he’d like to see more of on Dixwell Avenue, and that the city should be doing everything it can to support.

Darryl Nicholson, who grew up in New Haven and now lives in Hamden, spoke about founding his company Maintenance Pro Cleaning Services nine years ago. He said his business made a lot of money during the pandemic doing ​“crisis cleaning” and ​“disinfectant services,” but with a lighter workload now, he’s had to scale back from 20 to 15 employees.

“Right now, my biggest problem is being certified,” he said. He said his business often ends up as a top-three bidder when going after contracts — but he rarely emerges on top. 

Nicholson — who also runs a landscaping business and a box-truck company — said his maintenance cleaning company is busy cleaning charter schools, dentists’ offices, and other chains. But in order to scale up, he needs help getting certified.

Allen McCollum, who grew up in McConaughy Terrace and leads the Whalley Avenue Special Services District, told the group about his real estate investment company Atlantic Capital. He said his work has taken him out of state, helping assembling a funding deal for a casino in upstate New York that he said reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as out of the country, including current housing projects he said he’s working on in Ghana.

“I’ve been able to parlay relationships” he’s built over the decades of doing business in New Haven to help Atlantic Capital grow, he said. ​“There’s a lot of funding out there that we are unfamiliar with. Knowledge is key.”

McCollum said he’d love to see the city proactively working more closely with businesses founded and run by New Haveners to help them grow and succeed. ​“It’s a great city,” he said. That’s why he and so many others have stayed in New Haven. And ​“it’s getting better. We’ve got to be a part of it.”