Laura Glesby Photo
Germano Kimbro on his front porch on Spring Street.
Germano Kimbro envisions a New Haven in which neighborhoods grow their own food and kids learn how to fly drones at school. He promises to fight for this vision as an alder if his Hill neighbors send him to the Board of Alders.
Kimbro turned in fifty signatures at the Hall of Records so that he can run in the Sept. 10 primary and, if he loses that race, in the Nov. 5 general election for alder from the Ward 5.
Kimbro is running against local landlord Kampton Singh, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee. The ward’s current alder, David Reyes, decided not to run for reelection.
On his front porch Wednesday evening, Kimbro discussed his priorities entering the alder race. He spoke to a trend of gentrification that he has noticed throughout the city. He said that over time, in his experience, fewer and fewer of the businesses in the Hill are run by residents of the neighborhood.
“We’re pouring our money into businesses that don’t pour anything into us,” he said.
A “Yale: Respect New Haven” sign, one of the hundreds that Yale unions have distributed across the city to pressure the university to hire more New Haven residents, stuck out from the fence around his front yard. Kimbro also argued that the government should focus on small businesses owned by community members as a means of creating jobs. “We’re pleading to Yale for jobs. Yale should be our customer,” he said.
In particular, Kimbro said, he wants New Haven to invest in a greener economy focused on small businesses, including solar and wind energy, green spaces, and community-centered farms.
Kimbro anticipated that many minimum wage jobs will soon be replaced by automation, worsening economic inequality in the city. Rather than try and delay this automation, Kimbro argued, the city should lean into it — “teaching our kids in schools to fly drones” and operate robots.
In general, he said, schools should increase offerings in practical, employable sets of knowledge, including entrepreneurship, money management, and civic engagement.
Kimbro also cited bolstering community policing and increasing homeownership in his neighborhood as other priorities.
Singh, Kimbro’s opponent, has centered his campaign around his thorough knowledge of the neighborhood from his day-to-day experience walking the streets as a property manager. Singh also noted public safety, job creation, and education as key components of his agenda. (Click here to read a previous story about Singh’s candidacy.)
Kimbro works as a certified recovery support specialist at Connecticut’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. In his spare time, he drives for Uber. He has lived in his Spring Street home in the fifth ward on and off for over 20 years.
Kimbro’s childhood home on Orchard Street (recently revisited in this article) served as headquarters for New Haven’s Black Panthers. His father, Warren Kimbro, partook in an infamous murder and “regretted it for the rest of his life,” Kimbro said. His father went on to become a leader in helping ex-convicts build new lives after prison. Kimbro said his late father’s commitment to civic life in New Haven is part of what inspired him to run for alder.
Kimbro said he has supported efforts to strengthen the Civilian Review Board in New Haven, protested for New Haven Rising’s campaign for Yale to create more local jobs, and participated in voter turnout efforts this past November in a close gubernatorial race.
“I don’t consider myself someone who’s gonna be a lifelong politician,” Kimbro said. “I was born and raised to take care of my community and the people in my community.”