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State Sen. Gary Winfield.
“Listen better” and “accept blame.” Offer concrete solutions.
New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield offered those pieces of advice, respectively, to Mayor Toni Harp and her Democratic primary opponent, Justin Elicker.
Winfield, who has served in the state legislature since 2009, offered his observations Monday about the hotly contested mayoral election, during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Winfield has not at this point endorsed either candidate for the Sept. 10 primary.
“I’m not supportive of anyone right now,” he said. Asked if he expects to make an endorsement, he responded, “I honestly don’t know.”
Winfield, who lives on Winchester Avenue in Newhallville, said he’s hearing “a lot of frustration” in the community about city government. The frustration centers on education and economic development, as well as a general questioning of the city’s direction, he said. Other issues, like the administration’s lead paint losses in court, have emerged on top of that “foundation of grievance.”
“Some people don’t feel connected” to the government, he said. “You hear about the graduation rates [increasing]. But their children enter college, they’re not as prepared as they should be.”
Similarly, people hear about the torrid pace of construction in town, but feel they don’t see the same opportunities, including housing and jobs, in their own neighborhoods. “I don’t know what city you’re talking about!” he hears.
Elicker has hit that issue hard, Winfield noted. The challenger “is paying attention to what people are saying” and “figuring out how to respond” — though not necessarily offering solutions to all of them, Winfield observed. “You can’t deny he is working diligently” to get elected.
Winfield was asked about why public perception in, say, Dixwell and Newhallville doesn’t account for plans in the works or already completed for market-rate, working-middle-class and low-income housing.
He responded that the City Hall can do better at communicating its successes — as well as acknowledging the criticisms, whether or not it believes the criticisms to be true. He spoke of the importance of “listening well” and “being willing to accept blame that is yours and not yours.”
“Do you think if elected Justin Elicker will continue to be present in neighborhoods like Newhallville outside of the election cycle?” listener Ratasha Smith asked Winfield during the program.
“I don’t think any of the mayors I’ve seen spend a lot of time in Newhallville” outside of election season, Winfield responded, and he doesn’t see reason to believe otherwise about Elicker.
Also on the program, Winfield discussed victories from this year’s state legislative session, such as a law to make more police body cams available and others to raise the minimum wage, increase workforce job training, and extend the statute of limitations for reporting sexual harassment in the workplace. He blamed the failure of cannabis legalization in part on his insistence on “equity” for black and brown communities in the economic benefits, which he said “lowered interest” among some legislators. He blamed the failure of interstate toll legislation to “the governor’s inability to pick a position and stay there.”
Click on the Facebook Live video for the full interview with State Sen. Gary Winfield on “Dateline New Haven”:
This episode of “Dateline New Haven” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.