Phoning Mr. Gates

If elected New Haven’s next mayor, Ron Smith plans to call Bill Gates and ask him to start a ​“computer chip company” in the Dixwell neighborhood as part of a way to boost the black community’s fortunes.

Smith offered that suggestion as he and two other candidates for mayor held their second and final debate Saturday before this coming Tuesday’s general election.

How to help the black community emerged as a theme at the debate, which was held at WYBC’s Temple Street studios. Smith and fellow independent candidate Sundiata Keitezulu debated incumbent first-term Democratic Mayor Toni Harp. They fielded questions from community activist and former alder Al Hajj Yusuf Ibn Shah and New Haven Register senior web producer Angela Carter during more than an hour on WYBC’s ​“Electric Drum.”

(Read about the first debate here.)

Throughout the debate Saturday, Smith and Keitezulu made an effort to paint a New Haven that is heading in the wrong direction under Harp’s leadership, particularly for minorities, on issues ranging from education and job training to housing and youth development. Harp pointed to a city that is reducing crime and addressing the very problems her opponents critiqued.

“We have made progress,” Harp said. ​“I believe that New Haven really is the greatest small city in America. We have done things that no other city in America, and probably in the world, has done. And I really hope that people stop coming down on our city because the reality is we are a fantastic city, full of fantastic people, who contribute to the city every day, and all of us together are making it better.”

Keitezulu and Smith said the city hasn’t done enough, particularly for it’s black community. Shah asked candidates to describe their vision for New Haven’s African-American community and what would they do for that community if they become the city’s next mayor.

Harp said she’s proud to be mayor of a city that’s not perfect but making progress every day. She pointed to significantly decreased crime rates and stronger schools, which she said benefit African Americans.

She also acknowledged that there is still room for improvement, particularly in dealing with persistent joblessness in city neighborhoods where incomes are low. ​“We have a number of things that we’re working on and we’ve made progress,” she said. ​“But we’ve got to make more progress.”

Harp said jobs are coming back to New Haven, but the city needs ​“the kind of training programs that actually lead to real jobs for people. She said with another two years of her leadership, she can move the needle further in that are.

“I ran two years ago and I’m running for the second term because I believe that I have the resources, I believe that I have the ability, I believe I have put together the team that can master some of these programs that can move New Haven forward,” she said.

Smith, a former city clerk, engaged in several testy exchanges with Harp during Saturday’s debate. He told listeners that the only way the African-American community in New Haven can shake off some of the persistent social problems that have plagued it would be if they showed up to the polls and voted for him.

He called out the Harp administration on its handling of an incident earlier this year in which a 15-year-old black girl was slammed to the ground by a white city police officer; criticized its progress on the long awaited Q House in Dixwell; an challenged an economic development agenda that he said doesn’t benefit the city’s poorest communities with jobs or housing.

“If you look around in the black community the black man and the black woman is not working,” he said. ​“Look at the development that is going on —that she has indicated how great our city is — but it’s not great that we’re not working inside our community. We are not bringing home pay checks. We’re not taking care of our families. There are not opportunities for us.

“Look, the bottom line if you’re African-American, you know what matters to you. I will put young African-Americans to work, and Latino men and women to work because we deserve that in this city.

“She had her shot,” Smith said of Harp.

Keitezulu said the black community is always the first to see promised funding rescinded in hard times, and he advocated for major changes to the city’s education system and more self-sufficiency as a way forward for the city and its African American community.

“I don’t think we have ever did enough for the black community,” he said. ​“Because each and every time, when it comes down to funding, we do not receive it. As the next mayor of this city, I will change the education system.”

He said that would mean job training in every high school and mandatory lessons in languages such as Spanish and Chinese. He also would turn Hillhouse High School into a vocational-technical school.

“I’m tired of asking people for things [that] we can do for ourselves,” he said. ​“The time is [now] for the black man in this city to step up, and help his own self. But at the same time you have to have leadership that is dedicated to our cause. That’s why I’m here today. I’m dedicated for the cause. And you don’t have to worry about it because I’m right with you. I live in Newhallville I’m a grassroots candidate — one of the two grassroots candidates sitting here right now, and I’ll make sure that the job gets done.”

Phoning Mr. Gates

Economic development is booming in downtown, but not so much in the city’s predominantly black and brown neighborhoods, Shah said. He asked the candidates how they would bring development to those communities.

Smith said it’s a matter of looking for economic projects that would fit into communities filled with empty lots like the one over on Henry Street. He advocated doing more to make certain communities ​“attractive” to developers, and even simply reaching out to deep pocketed tech giants like Bill Gates and asking them to build here.

“Just throwing it out there, but Bill Gates,” Smith said. ​“Call him up and say, ​‘We’d like you to put a computer chip company here in our community. Can you fly up here and take a look at what we have, and is that enough land for you to build that?’ It would put maybe 100 to 150 people to work, or maybe 50 people to work, but at least we are attracting these businesses to come into our town, and not come in just to downtown.”

Earlier in the broadcast Smith had criticized the Harp administration’s support of the development of the former Winchester Arms manufacturing plant into the luxury housing complex Winchester Lofts, because it isn’t a job or affordable housing generating venture. Smith said the city should do more to specifically attract businesses to the Dixwell, Newhallville, Hill and Fair Haven neighborhoods to create job opportunities.

Harp pushed back against the Winchester Loft critique by pointing out that the property was now back on the city tax rolls and would have continued to languish if the city had waited for manufacturing to come back. She said what’s missing from the city now is the strong community development organizations that existed in each neighborhood 20 years ago that her administration is trying to revive.

“My administration is rebuilding the community development apparatus that we used to have because it’s really important,” she said. ​“We’re working with folks over on Route 34 so that the community will actually help to develop that empty space. We’re going to align them with regular developers, who have some experience, but [community members] will be the ones that will develop that.”

She said a similar initiative is happening with the development of the Dixwell Plaza and a new small business academy her administration started there.

“There have been small business programs in the city forever but this is the first time in the history of New Haven that a small business academy is located in the Dixwell neighborhood and people from all over this town and from the suburbs too — for the first time in state history— all of the programs that support small business can be accessed at one place,” she said.

Harp pointed out that the academy has graduated its first class of more than 30 entrepreneurs and that there is a program specifically aimed at helping businesses on the city’s major thoroughfares Grand, Whalley, Dixwell and Howard avenues improve the look of their businesses.

“I believe we are doing many things to improve access in New Haven to resources that support businesses here,” she said.

Keitezulu said there needs to be more development of the neighborhoods if small businesses are going to flourish. ​“Businesses are not going to develop in unsafe neighborhoods,” he said.

Youth Centers For All?

The Q House is a touchstone for the city’s black community, and the road to rebuilding it has been anything but easy. A delay in promised funding from the state has become a sore point for some in the community. Shah asked what plans the candidates had to finally get it rebuilt.

Keitezulu said he went to the Q House as a child and even remembers signing up for a summer job there. He said the city is not getting the funding it needs for not just the Q House, but for youth centers all over the city. ​“We need a community center in every part of the city,” he said.

He said those centers should be about more than learning how to swim and playing basketball, but they should be places where young people can receive job training and learn violence prevention. He said he would pay for it by cutting the city’s budget. He said by cutting the city budget 5 percent he could find $30 million.

Harp said progress is being made on the Q House. The initial plan and design work has been done with the $1 million that the city has already received from the state. She said that while the $14.5 million in promised additional funding is delayed, she expects that it will come through early next year, which would allow the city to start building. (The state has reached the end of its bonding capacity for this calendar year.) 

She also pointed out that there are other projects aimed at youth development and keeping kids safe. By the end of November, she said, a center aimed at older youth called the Escape, which will offer social services and even a teen shelter, will be open. Harp also said that there are plans in the works for starting an IT-focused youth program for young people in the Hill neighborhood and a sports complex that allow for activities such as cycling and indoor soccer in Fair Haven. ​“We agree that there need to be things for our young folks to do,” she said. ​“I’m pretty proud of the work we have done.”

Smith said it’s time to call on deep pocketed developers, companies and even Yale University to help build youth centers all over the city. ​“We cannot depend on the state for every thing,” he said.

A Strategy For Re-Entry

Carter asked the candidates how the city could work with the state and federal government to connect with incarcerated young people before they are released so that they have a more successful re-entry into society. It was one of the areas that the candidates mostly agreed on what needed to be done.

Keitezulu said that the city must get inside jails and prisons and assess what issues the person who will be returning to New Haven might have such as a lack of a high school diploma or a substance abuse problem that would hinder a successful re-entry. But he also said there is a need to work with employers to not only get them to hire people, but to develop job training programs that provide people a skill and help them receive the proper certifications that they might need.

Smith said that sitting down with business owners about hiring convicted felons would be one of his priorities, but also prevailing on the state to incentivize the businesses to make such hires also would be part of his plan.

Harp said her administration has secured a $1 million ​“Second Chance” grant to do exactly what her opponents have suggested. The money will be used to get into prisons and work with incarcerated New Haveners before and after they are released. The money also will be used to address the needs of the families of convicted felons who are returning home.

“I’m really excited about what we’re doing,” she said. ​“It is the first time that it has been done in the United States and we expect that it will be very successful.”