Maya McFadden photos
The latest “Meet the Mayor” community conversation with Justin Elicker, in Trowbridge Square Park.
A small but outspoken crowd of Hill residents gathered with Mayor Justin Elicker to talk about how to fix neighborhood violence.
One proposed solution: The Hill needs more residents to apply to become police officers.
That conversation took place last Wednesday evening at Trowbridge Square Park, where Elicker hosted his latest “Meet the Mayor” event with city residents.
The mayor has visited neighborhoods across the city to give people a chance to convey all types of concerns to him directly. He’s made recent stops in Newhallville and Morris Cove.
A group of roughly 15 Hill residents came and went to the gathering last Wednesday while children played on the playground and splash pad across the way.
Alders Kampton Singh and Carmen Rodriguez, with neighbor Louis Pozzuolia.
Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez said she called up many of her neighbors in advance to invite them to the meet-up and to gather a list of concerns to bring to the mayor. One attendee, Louis Pozzuolia, stopped by after stumbling upon the meet-up during a stroll through the park.
The mayor was joined Wednesday by a number of other city officials, such as Traffic, Transportation & Parking Director Doug Hausladen, City Engineer Giovanni Zinn, and Hill district commander Sgt. Justin Marshall, among others.
From the very start, neighbors approached the mayor with comments and concerns about recent violence in the Hill and other issues which involve the police.
Neighbors questioned if police have been able to get control of Long Wharf and put a stop to large gatherings and street racing. That racing usually travels into the Hill and can keep neighborhood officers occupied and too busy to patrol the area, many said.
Marshall informed the residents of the department’s recent work cracking down large gatherings and street racing on Long Wharf. He described a recent operation two Saturdays ago during which the department towed cars and made multiple arrests after tracking down racers at the Long Wharf Mobil.
Leslie Radcliffe.
Hill residents Leslie Radcliffe asked, “Is there a shortage in our police? Do we have all hands on deck for police officers?”
Elicker responded that even after his cut of 48 vacant positions from this fiscal year’s police department budget, the department still has room to hire more officers.
Elicker added that the NHPD is currently accepting applications until Sept. 4 and encouraged residents to share the message along with their friends and family to hire more New Haveners to the department.
“We’ll take whatever patrol here in the Hill that other neighborhoods don’t want,” Radcliffe said.
“We need representation in the police. If we want change we have to make it,” said Rodriguez who handed pamphlets about the police application process to neighbors. “If they’re interested give the information to your family and friends so they can be out here helping and listening to us.”
One resident asked Marshall if the current extra police patrol in the Hill is permanent or not.
“We need them,” the resident said. Marshall informed the crowd that the NHPD will continue its targeted enforcement in the Hill for at least the next month. In August and September, Marshall said, eight cops have been assigned to Hill North and five to Hill South.
Elicker and Rodriguez encouraged residents to stay out of any neighborhood trouble when issues arise and to “have the police on speed dial” instead.
How To Bridge The Digital Divide?
Maxine Harris (second from right).
Hill North Community Management Team Secretary Maxine Harris then asked, “What is school going to look like for kids that can’t afford internet?”
The public school system is slated to begin the school year with 10 weeks of entirely remote learning.
Elicker said the New Haven Public Schools’s roughly 21,000 students will receive devices like chromebooks, iPads, tablets, and Dell laptops.
And he said that there will be 10,000 spots available for families without internet to sign up and get Comcast internet for free.
“What’s in place for kids that can’t learn with these Chromebooks?” asked Hill South Community Management Team Chair Sarah McIver, who lives on Arthur Street.
McIver does not have kids of her own but has family and neighbors with kids who “need extra help in school.”
“Some kids have a hard time keeping up without a pandemic going on. I’m just thinking, what about them? We can’t just let them fall through the cracks,” she said.
Elicker said the city is working on addressing this issue, but that he couldn’t give a full answer right then. He encouraged the community to be a good neighbor and help families with schooling in any way possible this school year.
Harris shared that she hosts a weekly read out loud program at 14 Stevenson St. to keep kids on track in the summer.
McIver said she hopes to get neighbors to start more community initiatives this school year like Harris’s to help kids not fall behind.
A Noisy Neighborhood
Magaly Cajigas.
Magaly Cajigas joined the gathering with her daughter Alanna Cajigas after Rodriquez had called her.
Cajigas’s parents have lived in their Hill home since she was fifteen. She asked Elicker to implement more community policing to make the neighborhood safer. “All I want is some kind of peace and serenity for them,” she said of her elderly and retired grandparents who often call her daily with a “laundry list” of complaints about the neighborhood.
Cajigas said the neighborhood is constantly loud from neighbors, to visitors, to a neighborhood DJ that plays music during all hours of the day.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit New Haven, Cajigas started working remotely from her parents’ house because of their better internet connection. She said she has struggled to work because of how noisy the neighborhood is.
“It’s ridiculous when you have to joke with your boss on Zoom that you have to close the door and windows because the neighborhood DJ thinks 3 p.m. is a good time for some music,” she said.
Alanna, 17, said while at her grandparents’ home she cannot go outside alone, and that her grandfather must walk with her when going to the corner store.
Elicker agreed with Cajigas that neighbors should be held accountable and encouraged her to call in the re-occurring noise issues to the police.
Even after the hour-long community conversation was up, many residents stuck around to talk with the mayor about what life is like living in the Hill.