Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
A campaign kickoff turned into a community meeting as Jeanette Morrison announced the latest in a series of first-time quests for seats on the Board of Aldermen.
The 43-year-old political newcomer (pictured) announced her candidacy Friday evening in the courtyard at the Eugene L. McCabe Manor condominium complex on Winchester Avenue, pink and green balloons billowing off to one side.
She pledged to improve communication with voters if she’s elected to the alderman’s seat in Ward 22, vowed to push for better jobs and neighborhood resources for the Dixwell area, and joked that her big student loan bills mean nobody could buy her vote.
When Morrison (pictured) asked for questions, there were no softballs from the crowd of about 30.
The race appears to be headed toward a four-way contest. Besides Morehead and Morrison, activists Lisa Hopkins and Cordelia Thorpe — who have run in the past — say they plan to run again.
Some criticized incumbent Alderman Greg Morehead, who said in an interview that he’s running again. But most wanted answers from Morrison about the city’s most vexing problems.
Morrison will face Morehead in a Sept. 13 Democratic Party primary for the seat representing the heart of Dixwell, including the Monterey Homes complex, as well as a sliver of the Yale campus. The ward has seen repeated hard-fought primaries the past few years. Morrison’s campaign manager, Hugh Baran, is a staff organizer (on leave) with Yale’s blue-collar Local 35 union; he’s involved in several of the challenges mounted by union-affiliated newcomers this season. From Beaver Hills to West River to East Rock, union-backed candidates are assembling an alternative slate to City Hall-backed incumbents this year.
The first question at Morrison’s announcement Friday evening concerned school privatization. Bad idea, Morrison said: kids and parents need to know their teachers, custodians and administrators. The city recently entered into a contract with a for-profit company to manage Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy in the Hill.
Dixwell neighbors listen to Morrison outline her positions.
Other queries came in rapid succession. What would Morrison do about school quality? About jobs? Would she support an intervention center for teens at risk of abandoning education and turning to the streets? Will the neighborhood benefit from plans to renovate the old Winchester factory?
The comments indicated the level of concern about the economy and its impact on long-term cycles of poverty and social problems in the city. They also reflected anxiety that the summer months will see an escalation in the violence that’s already rumbling through neighborhoods.
Amid the issues came a more pointed political question: if she’s elected, how would Morrison avoid becoming part of the problem she’s pledging to fight?
“I don’t owe anybody anything, and when you don’t owe anybody anything, you can be an independent thinker,” said Morrison, who’s a supervisor for the state Department of Children and Families. “Going against the current is always hard, but that’s always been my life.”
A Newhallville native, Morrison went to city schools before leaving town to attend Morgan State University. She got a master’s degree in social work at Boston University, but homesickness brought her back to New Haven 18 years ago. A single mom raising two kids, 17-year-old Jordan and Jaydah, who’s almost 12, Morrison said she understands the challenges families in Dixwell — and around the city — face every day.
“I know about the education system with my kids,” she said. “And believe me, I struggle with the New Haven school system with my kids.”
Morrison has a good job, but she knows too many others don’t, she said. One of her campaign slogans references bringing Dixwell back to its “glory days” — which, she said, she’s old enough to remember. She has fond memories of doing gymnastics and other activities at the now-defunct Dixwell Community “Q” House, and wonders how today’s kids can manage without “safe spaces” to learn and develop.
Her solution, in a cash-strapped city? Make Yale pay, through taxes or other means.
“I think everyone should give their fair share. I think every institution in our community should pay taxes,” Morrison said. “Our universities don’t pay taxes, but they have a lot of money … it could really offset a lot of costs.”
Morehead, who said he plans a formal campaign kickoff in a couple of weeks, calling taxing Yale an unrealistic idea.
“That’s not something that the Board of Aldermen can make them institute,” he said.
Morehead said he tries to focus on the positive contributions — both financial and otherwise — that Yale makes to the ward and the city.
“Our ward is much safer” because of some of Yale’s efforts, he said.
Ward 22 includes parts of Yale, including four residential colleges: Morse, Stiles, Timothy Dwight and Silliman. Two years ago, the campus was a significant stop on the campaign trail for Morehead and his opponents. With the help of recent graduate and community organizer James Cersonsky, Morrison has already been inside the college’s dining halls for a little retail politicking.
Morrison said the walls between Yale and the Dixwell neighborhood need to come down. Cersonsky (pictured below, in the red shirt) said he’s impressed with Morrison’s communications skills and thinks she’s got the potential to help build a relationship with the university.
Her message of knitting together a community is one that at least some students can get behind, he said. Attending Yale “doesn’t mean that we endorse the gentrifying designs of the university,” Cersonsky said.
Morrison is a steward in the AFSCME Local 2663, which represents state employees. She said she’s not formally associated with a slate of candidates backed by unions that represent city and Yale employees, but that she’s supportive of their efforts.
She declined to criticize Morehead directly, saying the ward’s political battles “have always been so nasty.”
“I really respect our alderperson,” Morrison said of Morehead. “I just really want to make sure the people are heard. As long as it’s about the issues and the people, that should be the bottom line.”
Morrison, who sits on her condo association’s board, said she’d always wanted to get involved in city politics. Two current alderwomen, Claudette Robinson-Thorpe and Jacqueline James, encouraged her to jump into the race, she said.
“I don’t know anyone at City Hall who’s telling my story,” she said.
Morrison said she hopes to set up a meeting with Morehead to discuss her candidacy.
Morrison said she wants to improve communication between City Hall and the neighborhood. She listed a number of examples, from the construction of the Farmington Canal Trail to the Winchester factory renovation, in which she said residents were basically told that a project was happening rather than being consulted beforehand.
Answering questions about the Winchester project and other commercial endeavors in the area, Morrison said her first step would be to pick up the phone and set up meetings with developers to explore how locals could apply for jobs and get involved.
Morehead pointed out that the project isn’t in Ward 22; it abuts the oddly-shaped district and has been held out as a possible job-generator for people in the area. Morehead said he has tried to respect the turf of his aldermanic colleagues while still pushing the local developer, Higher One, to be sure to offer job opportunities to local residents.
As for communication, Morehead said he started a quarterly newsletter when he was first elected to keep residents informed and spends plenty of time talking to anyone who’s interested in what’s happening.
“If everybody reads the newsletters, they should know what’s going on,” he said.
Morehead said he anticipates a spirited race, as usual, in seeking his third full term as alderman.
“I still believe in the support of my constituents, and I believe in what I’m doing,” he said. “So I don’t worry, or flinch, about people running against me.”
Morrison said she’s ready, too.
“If my teachers from Jackie Robinson [Middle School] were here, they’d say, ‘Jeanette, you’re still talking,’‘’ she joked at the end of Friday’s event. “Well, I’m talking because I have something to say.”