Seeking 2nd Miracle, Malloy Walks Newhallville

Returning to must-ignite turf for his reelection campaign, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Sunday pitched a new program to hire the hard-core unemployed and promised to consider granting cities new powers to seize trashed buildings from slumlords.

Malloy discussed jobs and blight with people in Newhallville at one of three stops in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in New Haven.

With polls showing him tied in a rematch against Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley, Malloy needs to repeat—and perhaps exceed—his stunning 18,606-vote victory margin in New Haven in 2010 (almost three times the size of his statewide victory margin). That’s why he has spent so much time here this year. This weekend alone he had two campaign stops in town Saturday in addition to the three on Sunday. Campaign organizers in town have been pushing against a decided enthusiasm gap this fall.

To repeat the 2010 New Haven feat, Malloy’s campaign needs to ignite excitement among largely unmotivated voters in two kinds of districts in New Haven: Democrats and independents in high-turnout middle- and upper-class East Rock and Westville and Wooster Square wards who voted against his endorsed-candidate in the last mayoral election; and African-American voters in Newhallville and Dixwell who reliably vote Democratic but don’t reliably vote in large numbers.

Sunday’s focus was on the latter group. If Malloy is successful, he may have a moment like the one then‑U.S. Senate candidate Chris Murphy had in 2012: He said he knew he had won the election when he showed up to Newhallville’s Ward 20 polling place, Lincoln-Bassett School, to find lines out the door at a generally slow mid-morning voting hour. Ward 20 had among the highest turnouts citywide.

So it was no surprise that Malloy’s first stop Sunday afternoon was outside the home of the woman most responsible for pulling that ward vote, Alder Delphine Clyburn. He asked what the neighborhood needs. He got three answers.

As they stepped over cracked sidewalks and below overgrown trees that block streetlights at night on some crime-prone neighborhoods, Clyburn spoke of the need for infrastructure improvements. Good idea, Malloy said.

Next she and Mayor Toni Harp, who accompanied Malloy, spoke about the need for more help in combating blight. ​“The real problem in this neighborhood is the absentee landlords,” Harp said. Newhallville, which before crack hit in the late 1980s had the city’s highest level of African-American homeownership, still has many well-kept owner-occupied houses. Harp pointed to one (pictured) on Newhall Street. ​“It’s unfair for a house like this,” she said, ​“to be in a neighborhood” with so many irresponsible absentee owners and abandoned or neglected properties.

Properties like the one pictured above, just down the street on Newhall.

Harp and Clyburn didn’t ask Malloy for specific relief. In other states lawmakers have proposed giving local officials the ability to seize control with 90 or 180 days of abandoned neglected ​“zombie” houses whose ownership remains in limbo when a bank has refused to complete a foreclosure but keeps paying taxes. A bill proposed to the New York State legislature this year, called the Abandoned Property Neighborhood Relief Act, would have given cities and neighbors more tools to track down unresponsive lenders and foreclose on homes left in limbo; New Haven’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative, has some of those tools but not others. The New York bill gained statewide municipal support but didn’t pass. (Read about its details here and here.)

Malloy said he’d be open to considering a 90- or 180-day seizure proposal as long as it contained ​“proper notice” to owners. He promised more generally to ​“have a conversation” with Harp about anti-blight ideas.

Malloy was ready to talk about the third issue. Harvey Wood gave him the opening when he stopped him on Newhall Street and asked: ​“What can we do about given these men jobs?” Malloy said he plans to introduce a $10 million ​“human redevelopment” program for people long out of work — because of a disability or a prison record. It would train them then place them in jobs, paying all or some of the salary for the first months. Malloy plans to work with existing not-for-profits (like this one, which just opened in New Haven). He also proposed a ​“ConnectiCorps” knock-off of AmeriCorps that would hire unemployed people to work for not-for-profits or on local beautification projects. Like the public improvements Delphine Cyburn asked him for help with.

On Cave Street, Malloy knocked on the doors of retirees like 91-year-old Louise Funderburg (pictured). She said after he left that she ​“guesses” she will vote for him — provided someone comes to her house with an absentee ballot. (“My legs are not too good.”) Her neighbor, retired Pratt & Whitney machinist William Moore, said after Malloy left his front door that he will definitely vote for him: ​“I’m a Democrat. I believe they’re more inclined to help the poor people.”

Malloy departed from his relentless attacks on Republican Foley Sunday; the question in Newhallville and Dixwell was whether he can turn out the loyal vote, not whether it will significantly turn Republican. Two neighborhood state legislators on the tour — Sen. Gary Holder-Winfield (at left in photo) and Rep. Robyn Porter — said the face time helps motivate people to turn out. Holder-Winfield remembered accompanying Malloy to Read Street, a crime-ridden stretch of Newhallville, in the 2010 campaign. (Malloy returned there in 2013.) Word got around that a gubernatorial candidate had shown up. Holder-Winfield and Porter noticed people coming out on the their porches as Malloy passed their houses Sunday. ​“It says you’re important enough for the governor to stop in our neighborhood,” Holder-Winfield said.

Porter (pictured) said it helps her make the pitch to her voters to cast a vote in the governor’s race. ​“People don’t necessarily care about voting for him,” she said. ​“But our bills won’t be moving like they have the last four years with Foley on the throne.” Holder-Winfield reminds Newhalville voters that the last time a Republican was governor, he succeeded in getting a bill passed to end the death penalty in Connecticut; the governor vetoed it. After Malloy’s election, the bill passed again — and Malloy signed it.

After Newhallville, Malloy motored Sunday afternoon to the plaza outside the Dixwell Community ​“Q” House, whose $20 million resurrection has been his most visible ​“deliverable” this campaign season for New Haven’s African-American community. He was greeted by neighbors as well as by a crew from the Yale College Democrats, who have played a major vote-pulling role in the 22nd Ward since redistricting brought in some of the university’s residential colleges. Tyler Blackmon (pictured) was among the College Democrats hitting Malloy up for a selfie.

Then Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison led Malloy up Admiral Street to meet neighbors. Jerome Perkins, who owns a construction firm, stopped Malloy to press the need for more business for minority contractors like him. Malloy agreed that contractors like Perkins are more likely to hire neighborhood people; he urged Perkins to visit the state Department of Administrative Services (DAS) website to learn about his plans to increase the size of state contracts available to unbonded firms and to spend $20 million to help firms obtain bonding. (Click here to see how easily you can find the information.) ​“We’re waking up finally in Connecticut” to this issue, Malloy said. (Click on the video to watch the full exchange) Perkins told Malloy he voted for him in 2010. After Malloy left, Perkins was asked if he’ll vote for Malloy again. He said he remains undecided. ​“It is election time. After they get your vote, it goes back to normal,” Perkins responded. ​“I think he’s for the rich.” And Republican Foley? ​“They’re all for the rich.” Other people offered more encouraging reactions at other spots along the street.

Malloy just had to show up, not convince anybody, at his final stop, the housing authority-run Prescott Bush senior apartment complex on County Street. When he arrived he inspected the elevator with tenant council president Percy Penn. (“You can tell a lot about a building by the elevator. It’s the first thing they let go,” Malloy said. The elevator worked fine.) Malloy already had the complex’s votes before he showed up, Penn reported, for two reasons: He delivered a promised new deep freezer after a previous visit (“Truck pulled up here with a brand new one!”) And he’s a Democrat, supported by the neighborhood’s alder, Brenda Foskey-Cyrus. She ​“fights for us,” he said. Her word goes.