She organized her neighbors to take on a developer. Now Lisa Hopkins (pictured) is taking on what she calls a closed political process — by jumping into an already crowded race for a Dixwell aldermanic seat.
Hopkins has filed papers to run in an April 16 special election for alderman in the 22nd Ward. The seat became vacant — and a special election was called — after Alderman Drew King resigned because of legal and personal problems.
Candidates needed only two signatures on a petition to run. Hopkins turned in 60.
That’s because she’s an organizer. She has rallied two dozen neighbors on a new one-block street called Frances Hunter Drive to demand repairs on what they considered shoddily built houses. Wednesday the group received a letter from the developer promising to make repairs on terms that both sides can agree upon (a point confirmed Friday by the developer). Meanwhile, Hopkins and her neighbors continue to plan a picket outside City Hall in coming weeks to protest what they consider lax enforcement of a government-aided affordable-housing development. (To read a story about that ongoing fight, click here.)
The special election to fill the Ward 22 seat has provoked its own share of protest.
The ward, in the end of the Dixwell neighborhood abutting Yale and downtown, is overwhelmingly Democratic. So Democratic Party-endorsed candidates almost always win general elections. So the party ward committee’s endorsement carries a lot of weight. Members of the ward committee didn’t get to vote on the endorsement for this special election, though; instead the city’s Democratic Party chairwoman selected the candidate. She chose Greg Morehead over one of the ward co-chairs, Cordelia Thorpe. Click here to read a story about that.
Upset about what she called a closed process, Thorpe filed papers to run in the April 14 special election.
Then a third candidate, Reginald Lytle, filed papers. (He couldn’t be reached for comment.)
And Lisa Hopkins is the fourth. Which means a part of town notorious for low political participation — and thus often less organized to demand attention from City Hall and party leaders — has suddenly, if for a moment, become a hotbed of democracy.
Block Watcher
Hopkins, who’s 39 and has an 11-year-old daughter named Heaven, argued that her background in community organizing and affordable-housing work gives her the tools to spark more neighborhood activism as a Dixwell alderwoman. “I have a passion for helping people,” Hopkins said. Her campaign mantra is “Home, Family & Community.”
What does that mean? For starters, she said, pulling together blocks of neighbors the way the homeowners group on Frances Hunter Drive pulled together.
She gave examples of what can happen a block away, on Bristol Street. That long one-block street has been plagued by shootings lately; Hopkins hears them from her backyard.
On a stroll there Thursday afternoon, she stopped to heed a shout from the balcony of the William Griffiths apartment complex at 123 Bristol. Robert Freeman (pictured) was saying hello.
Years back, Hopkins got to know Freeman when she worked for a company called Housing Opportunities Unlimited. Her job included finding new homes for tenants at Griffiths apartments while the complex underwent renovation, then arranging for the tenants to move back in. Her job also included helping public-housing tenants find jobs. These days she works for a housing consultant company, called The Haven Group, which she formed with a friend; they focus on affordable housing matters.
Hopkins said that Freeman has become active in the neighborhood block watch. At a recent meeting he and others discussed a plan to spruce up a vacant lot next to Griffiths, already a community greenspace called the “Garden of Eden,” to host outdoor neighborhood meetings. That kind of activity goes far not just in creating a sense of community, but in making the street safer, Hopkins said. She said her mission as alderwoman would include encouraging more families to get involved in this and similar projects — and to link the ward’s block watches, including the successful one which “Grandma” Ruth Henderson runs on Dickerman Street.
Across the street, next to the Edith Johnson elderly tower, Hopkins pointed to 90 – 94 Bristol, a brick building with 15 apartments. “They’ve got good people living here,” she said. “It takes only one or two to make problems.” She’d also like to help them bring complaints about the building’s maintenance directly to the landlord. (The police, meanwhile, have been working hard with one particular family in the complex to steer teen-agers to more productive activity.)
Part of her job as alderwoman, if she’s elected, will include building on neighborhood successes, Hopkins said. Like the success of the Stetson branch library in Dixwell Plaza. The place is mobbed sometimes in the afternoon with kids, including some in formal after-school programs. That’s a good thing, Hopkins said — as well as a reason to do more. She’d like to find a way either to expand the branch in its current location or to find it a larger new home.
“If you go to Stetson around 2:30, it’s jammed with youth with no other place to go. The Stetson library is too small for that,” she said. A bigger space would also make room for programs for seniors and families.
Ultimately, Hopkins said, she sees her mission as getting Dixwell people involved — the opposite of what she saw happen in the party nomination process for this special election. “People need to stop and think how the process went and how entities outside our ward decided who would represent us,” she said. On April 16, that decision will be in the hands of her neighbors.
Longtime Youth Worker
Reginald Lytle wants to expand the Stetson branch, too. He also would like to see the shuttered Dixwell Q House become a performing arts center where kids could take ballet and musical-instrument lessons.
“The Dixwell Q house has been the center of this community for years,” Lytle said.
He should know — he grew up in the ward. His godfather was the late Stanley Rogers, the affable longtime alderman in 22. “I used to campaign with him, when I was with the mayor also. It was in my blood,” recalls Lytle, who’s now 38.
For a living Lytle works as a supervisor at the Whalley Avenue jail. On the side he has coached Pop Warner little league for the past 12 years. He currently serves as the league’s vice-president.
Not surprisingly, youth issues are a focus of his campaign. He’d also like to “change the perceived image of the 22nd Ward” and “bring economic development back to the ward.” He noted the recent opening of C‑Town at one end of Dixwell Plaza; he’d like to see the rest of the plaza spruced up.
Lytle doesn’t focus on the way the party nominated Morehead for this special election. “It doesn’t faze me,” he said “I’m just glad to see there are four people running. It shows there’s a lot of concern. People want to develop the 22nd Ward. It’s a good thing.”