Staff Photos
Ward 21 candidates Winter, Gist, Nunez, Streater.
Voters will get a choice this year about who should represent them in at least two of the city’s 30 wards.
Many candidates have yet to file papers to run for the 30 seats on the Board of Alders. As of Thursday morning, the following incumbents have filed to run for reelection: Charles Decker (East Rock’s Ward 9), Rose Santana (Fair Haven Heights’ Ward 13), Ernie Santiago and Jose Crespo (15 & 16 in Fair Haven), Jody Ortiz (17, the Annex), Sal DeCola (Morris Cove’s Ward 18), Kim Edwards and Steve Winter (Prospect Hill/Newhallville’s Wards 19 and 21), Delphine Clyburn (Newhallville’s Ward 20), Jeanette Morrison (Dixwell’s Ward 22), Adam Marchand (25, Westville), and Michelle Edmonds-Sepulveda (30, West Hills/West Rock).
Three separate Democrats have filed papers in the City Clerk’s Office to challenge Winter, a first-term independent: Eddie Gist, Maceo Streater, and Anais Nunez. Ward 21 also includes portions of the Dixwell neighborhood in addition to Newhallville and Prospect Hill.
Gist, who works as an assistant director at McClam Funeral Home, said he has lived in Newhallville for a decade. If elected, he said, he’ll focus on police-community relations and on youth. “The kids have nothing to do. They don’t have any activities whatsoever,” Gist said. Meanwhile, he said, “The police need to do better with the community” instead of “harassing kids who sit on the block [and] just talk.” Gist is a Masonic brother from Widow’s Son Lodge #1.
Streater, who works for his brother’s power-washing company, told the Independent he’s running because “I was born and raised in my community. I want to give back.” Nunez, who could not be reached for comment, described in this previous interview (when she pursued a subsequently abandoned Board of Ed candidacy) how she overcame life challenges to become a certified nurse assistant and early childhood-ed advocate.
Winter filed papers to run this time as a Democrat, which sets the stage for a potential four-way Sept. 10 primary. In an email message to constituents, he wrote of working with fellow alders and with neighbors in his first term to pass a civilian review board ordinance, resolve constituent problems like repairing cracked sidewalks and broken street lamps, and to seek greater city budget transparency and trim city borrowing.
“I’m running again because while we’ve made some progress, significant challenges remain,” Winter wrote. “The Civilian Review Board must get started, and important reforms – such as how other departments communicate and coordinate with New Haven – remain for policing. We have filed half a dozen petitions to make our streets safer for everyone and must continue pushing for traffic-calming improvements. Our young people continue to need opportunities in the summer, after school, and after graduating. Increased transparency and critical decisions remain to address the City’s persistent budget deficit.”
The other competitive race so far is in Ward 30, where incumbent Edmonds-Sepulveda faces a challenge from recently retired public works staffer and former Democratic ward co-chair Honda Smith. Click here to read a previous story about that race.
Other candidates filing papers include Eli Sabin in Yale’s Ward 1, and Maria Rodriguez in Ward 3 and Mayce Torres in Ward 4 in the Hill.
Reyes, Catalbasoglu Move On
At least two incumbents so far have announced they’re not seeking reelection: first-term Alder Hacibey Catalbasoglu, in Yale’s Ward 1, and two-term Ward 5 Hill Alder David Reyes, who currently works as a policy and communications associate in the state’s Office of Policy and Management (OPM).
Reyes, a 32-year-old Howard Avenue native and the nephew of former Board of Alders President Jorge Perez, described his four years representing the Hill on the board as an honor.
“As an alder,” he said, “you’re pretty much the middle man for your community and the administration.”
Reyes said he’s most proud of the neighborhood quality-of-life improvements he helped bring about during his tenure: adding speed humps to Lamberton Street, Plymouth Street, and Morris Street; forging close relationships with the neighborhood’s top cop and beat cops to help bring crime down in the Hill; and being in person on the scene during crisis moments that require open and rapid fire communication.
Neighbors praised Reyes earlier this year for heading straight to Howard Avenue and providing speedy and comprehensive alerts about an officer-involved shooting on Grand Avenue. Reyes himself recalled heading to house fire and working with a fire chief on duty to make sure that firefighters retrieved a concerned tenant’s medicine from a bathroom cabinet in the blazing house.
“Being that bridge of communication,” Reyes said. That’s what being an alder is all about.
“Last month I became the first in my family to graduate from college,” Catabasoglu wrote in a Facebook post announcing his decision not to run again for Ward 1 alder. “From taking ESL classes in elementary school to serving Yale students food at Brick Oven as a kid to now graduating from Yale myself, it’s been a crazy ride so far.”
He wrote that he will be starting a master’s degree program in public administration at Columbia University in January. Until then, he plans to stay in New Haven and finish his term as alder.
“When I ran for Alder,” he wrote. “I did so with one goal in mind: to connect Yale and New Haven. Having graduated, I am no longer the best person to further that goal. For that reason, I will not be seeking reelection in the fall.”
Eli Sabin, a 19-year-old New Haven native and rising Yale sophomore, filed papers to run as a Democrat for the open Ward 1 seat.
Since January, Sabin has served as the director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Progressive Caucus, a group of 44 state legislators organized to push an agenda focused on working class rights, environmental protection, and criminal justice reform, among other issues. In his role, Sabin said, he helped draft policy and collaborate with advocates to pass such bills as $15 minimum wage and paid family and medical leave.
“I grew up in New Haven.” Sabin said. “I care a lot about the city.” He said he wants to use all of the experience he’s gained from working on local political campaigns and at the state legislature “to fight for a stronger and more prosperous New Haven” for all residents, regardless of background and income.