Thomas MacMillan Photo
Greenberg and Ross.
In a topsy-turvy Wooster Square aldermanic debate, a newcomer to the neighborhood pitched himself as the candidate with the connections to be a good lawmaker — while two longtime neighbors boasted of their outsider status.
Those competing campaign messages emerged during a nearly two-hour Ward 8 aldermanic debate Thursday evening at the Episcopal Church of St. Paul and St. James at the corner of Olive and Chapel streets.
Three candidates took part in the event, each vying to be the next alderman to represent a ward that includes Wooster Square as well as parts of Grand Avenue, including the Farnam Court housing project.
Competing visions of political power were on display at the debate, differing notions of what it means to be an insider or an outsider in government and in a neighborhood, and how effective people in those roles can be.
Sometimes, it seems, it’s good to be an outsider. At other times, it seems, it’s good to be an insider.
The debate also featured three different views on the ideal make-up of the Board of Education, and two views on the idea of a teen curfew.
Two candidates, Democrat Peter Webster and Republican Andy Ross, presented themselves at the debate as men who have made strong connections with neighbors while living for years in the Wooster Square neighborhood. They both said they can serve the neighborhood and the city as a minority voice on the Board of Aldermen, Ross because he’d be possibly the only Republican, and Webster because he wouldn’t belong to the labor-backed super majority on the board.
The third candidate, Democrat Aaron Greenberg, offered the opposite position. He faced skepticism about his limited time as a resident of the neighborhood, having moved to Wooster Square only a year ago. And he said he would not be a minority voice on the Board of Aldermen, but part of the union-affiliated majority, and be more effective as a result.
Greenberg and Webster will face off in a Sept. 10 Democratic primary. One or both candidates will face Ross in the Nov. 5 general election, since Greenberg has filed to run in both the primary and the general election.
Measure For Measure
Webster.
The candidates found broad agreement for much of Thursday’s debate. One point of contrast emerged halfway through the debate, when moderator Father Alex Dyer asked the candidates about the funding of their campaigns, and what they think of the influence of unions in New Haven politics.
Greenberg said he’s supported by family and friends and neighbors. He said he hopes to receive money from workers, through the Yale-affiailted UNITE/HERE union locals that endorse him.
“I’m an organizer for grad students at Yale,” he said. “I’m proud of that. In a city where Yale is such a dominant player, we need more voices at the table.”
“I’m proud of the work that folks elected in 2011 have done,” Greenberg said, referring to the slate of union-backed candidates who swept into power in the 2011 elections. “I’m excited to be a part of that. It’s rare to have such a united group of folks working together.”
“I’m a union member too,” said Webster. “I’m a proud member of Actors Equity. Yes, unions are great. My father was a union organizer in the 1930s, when unions were really needed.”
Webster, a theater director, commented on union power in New Haven politics by quoting Shakespeare, from Measure For Measure: “It is excellent to have a giant’s strength and tyrannous to use it like a giant.”
“I am pro-labor, make no mistake about that,” Republican Ross offered. He said his father was a factory worker but unable to join the union in his shop. After 30 years on the job, he was blinded. His employer gave him a week’s pay and “very, very poor health plan,” Ross said. “I grew up angry” at the way his dad was treated.
His father, who later killed himself in a state of depression, would have been better cared for had he been part of the union, Ross said. “I know how important unions are.”
“What are some of the downfalls of unions?” Dyer asked.
“Don’t get me started,” Ross said. “The obvious downfall, when you have numbers of people that belong to a certain group and they have money, they have a great influence on politics.”
“Unions are great, but having too much union is like eating cake all the time,” Webster said. “I respect unions. I do. But I think they need to be more responsive to the people they represent.”
“I find the way my colleagues and other folks talk about unions kind of curious,” said Greenberg. “The folks who were elected two years ago came with a very big vision.” They want to address crime and youth and create jobs. “Those are things people actually want and things that matter. I don’t know what else people think unions are after. The power that there is has been harnessed for good ends.” (Click here, here, and here for a three-part mid-term look at the union-backed aldermanic majority’s agenda and performance.)
“Two Things”
Near the end of the debate, Elsie Chapman (pictured), one of about 40 people watching the debate from the church’s pews, asked the candidates to say how long they’ve lived in the ward and to name two ways they’ve made Ward 8 a better community.
Webster said he’s lived in the ward since 2005, first as a renter on St. John Street and now as a condo owner on Chapel. He said he’s been a part of the Wooster Square Association, which makes sure the square is clean and secure. He said he’s a member of the block watch, and helps out his neighbors every day, from shoveling snow to delivering produce.
Ross said he has lived in Wooster Square for 11 years. “I’m passionate about litter,” he said. He said he puts out garbage cans and picks up trash. He has served on the board of the Historic Wooster Square Association and last year chaired the Columbus Day Festival organizing committee.
“I’ve lived in Wooster Square as long as I’ve lived in New Haven,” said Greenberg. “I moved to New Haven last August. I’ll be here for the better part of 10 years.” He said he has “demonstrated engagement,” “been everywhere in this ward” and had hundreds of conversations with neighbors.
“What have you done?” Chapman interrupted. “Two things.”
Greenberg said that Wooster Street has seen a lot of break-ins in the last couple of weeks. He said he approached neighbors and connected people so they can set up a block watch. He called his second neighborhood-improvement accomplishment his campaign itself, “getting people involved across the ward.”
“I think Aaron answered it to the best of his ability,” Chapman said later. “He hasn’t been here long enough to accomplish anything. He came into the neighborhood as a neophyte. I question his qualifications.”
Greenberg said his short time as a resident of the ward has not come up as an issue while he’s been out campaigning. “Once people get to know me, they know how much I care,” he said.
Alignment
During closing statements, Ross (pictured) and Webster talked about the outsider roles they would serve on the Board of Aldermen.
“This city is a moving freight train headed on a collision course to financial disaster, unless you elect a minority voice to keep the majority honest,” Ross said. “I will fight the establishment at every turn.”
Ross said he would make sure legislative decisions are not made in the “back room” of the Democratic caucus. “I will force them to have discussions in the public.”
“I want to place a wedge in that inflexible Board of Aldermen group that moves forward at the speed of cement,” Webster said. “I want to take care of business instead of business as usual.
Webster is part of a slate of aldermanic candidates called “Take Back New Haven,” formed as an alternative to the union-backed slate that now controls the board.
Greenberg later called his alignment with that labor-affiliated majority an advantage: “The Board of Aldermen, when it’s moving in different directions, makes the city more mayor-centered. There’s a real advantage to coming in with shared priorities. You can’t do as much when you’re not part of that.”
Teachers On The School Board?
One of the few specific proposals to emerge from the debate was Ross’ suggestion that the city have a curfew for juveniles between sundown and sunrise. “They should not be out riding bikes in packs.”
Greenberg later called that idea “a pretty extreme measure” that would “end up affecting a lot of people who are not committing crimes.”
“I think curfews are hard to enforce and a draconian way of doing it,” Webster said. “It’s something to be considered.” New Haven lawmakers last considered, and rejected, a youth curfew in 2007.
Another point of disagreement centered on whether the Board of Education should be an elected or mayorally-appointed body.
Greenberg hailed the move to revise the charter so that the school board would include two elected members, creating a “hybrid” Board of Ed. He said it would be more accountable, more democratic, and more transparent.
“I am in total disagreement,” Ross said. Electing board members means politics, which means money, which means “undue influence,” he said. Elected boards just get too political, he said. The board should comprise only mayoral appointees vetted by the Board of Aldermen, he said.
“I’m a little confused in what way the current board is not political if the members are all appointed by the mayor, who is a politician,” Greenberg replied. The mayor would still sit on a hybrid board under the charter proposal, but people in New Haven would have a chance for more input, he said.
Asked later about elected versus appointed school boards, Webster pitched a different idea: The Board of Ed should be made mostly of teachers, elected by other teachers. “Don’t they know about education?”
He said the teacher members should serve no more than a year on the board: “Move them in and move them out, so no one gets entrenched. You get one year to do something.”