“I know I might lose whatever support I have here,” mayoral candidate Matthew Nemerson told Morris Cove Democrats, “but I’m a self-proclaimed airport hawk.”
With that said, Nemerson came out for expanding Tweed-New Haven Airport in order to attract more frequent and bigger commercial flights — and thus, he argued, more business for New Haven.
Nemerson, a mayoral candidate who has tried to present himself as the straight-talker in the field who’s willing to take unpopular positions, came out for the expanison at a mayoral debate Tuesday night hosted by the Democratic Ward Committee in Morris Cove — a neighborhood where airport growth is slightly more popular than funding al-Qaeda.
Six of the seven Democratic mayoral candidates participated in the debate, which took place at Nathan Hale School. None of the other candidates told the 40 people in attendance that the airport should expand. Sundiata Keitezulu was the one candidate not to attend.
Moderators Anthony Avallone, a zoning lawyer and former state senator, and recently-retired city Building Official Andy Rizzo asked the candidates questions developed byt he Ward 18 Democratic Committee. The questions focused on neighborhood issues ranging from potential new investments in the neighborhood’s Lighthouse Point Park to the contentious 2010 plan to dump material dredged from Bridgeport’s harbor in Morris Cove.
Some of the questions — like one about tackling climate change — were relatively new to East Shore political discourse. Then there was the airport — the overriding neighborhood question from campaign discussions going back at least four decades, and a third rail for candidates supporting expansion in a neighborhood upset about noise from planes.
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Nemerson (pictured) said that he sees Tweed as more than just a source of noise and health complaints. Expanding the airport — which has suffered its share of setbacks recently as it narrowly avoided losing its air traffic control tower to federal cuts — could bring much-needed jobs and revenue to the city, he argued.
As the former president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce in the 1990s, Nemerson said, he spoke with business leaders who wanted to bring their companies to New Haven but refused to do so unless there was a major airport “within 20 minutes.” Tweed does not rank as a “major airpot.” The candidate also cited a decade-old offer from Southwest Airlines that never got off the ground, to begin servicing Tweed.
Were Tweed expanded, Nemerson argued, new jobs would come to New Haven, while the city could impose impact fees to help close its perpetual budget shortfall. With increased service, he added, flights could be added to Washington D.C. or Florida, an idea that received murmurs of approval in the audience.
The other candidates at Tuesday night’s debate primarily emphasized balancing increased business with noise concerns when dealing with Tweed.
Candidate Henry Fernandez (pictured), a former city economic development chief, noted that he sat on Tweed’s board, stressed that while he believes in attracting more commercial flights to the airport, he would not expand its footprint in the manner Nemerson suggested. Hillhouse High School Principal Kermit Carolina and state Representative Gary Holder-Winfield, meanwhile, both maintained that convincing regional interests that a busier Tweed is in their best interest — Carolina cited travel to and from the area’s universities — would drum up stronger city interest in the airport.
Most of the candidates’ answers included the argument that Tweed needs more state money — a not-so-subtle dig at mayoral candidate Toni Harp, a state senator who co-chairs of the legislature’s powerful Appropriations Committee and last week received the endorsement of the city’s most politically powerful labor unions.
“Tweed needs to learn to fly on its own,” argued candidate Justin Elicker, an East Rock alderman. He called the city’s annual $350,000 Tweed subsidy unusual for a city the size of New Haven. Carolina joined in, answering that state money could cover better noise control technology.
Harp (at right in photo speaking with East Shore environmental activist Lynne Bonnett) shot back at critics in her answer.
“If you listen to these answers, you’d think that Tweed doesn’t receive any help from the state at all,” Harp said. “We’ve at least matched what the city does.”
In recent years, she said, the state has budgeted $1.5 million for the city’s airport.
Flooding Fears
A newer issue arose toward the end of the debate, one that promises to face elected officials for years to come: how the city, particularly waterfront areas like Morris Cove, will deal with climate change.
Rising sea levels threaten shoreline properties as the seawall falls into disrepair. The area is expected to continue enduring more and more devastating storms like Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, which threatened homes on the East Shore the previous two falls with powerful winds and flooding.
Candidates were asked how they would handle that issue as mayor.
Carolina, who was first to answer the question, admitted that he did not have an immediate answer. He said he would seek “people with expertise” to work toward a solution.
Elicker (pictured schmoozing with debate attendees), who is an environmental consultant and chairs the Board of Aldermen’s City Services and Environmental Policy Committee, pointed to an order that he and East Shore Alderman and Harp supporter Sal DeCola — in attendance at the debate — drafted. It requests that the city create a plan to manage climate change over the next 50 years
And despite her competitors’ continual allusions to insufficient state aid, Harp emphasized in her answer that successful management of climate change in New Haven would require a “partner in state government” to procure the necessary funding for items such as seawall repair.
The next mayoral debate, at Dixwell’s Varick AME Zion Church this Friday evening beginning at 6:30, will focus on education.