As mayor, Henry Fernandez would bring back the Q House — but not in the Q House itself.
The iconic Dixwell Community “Q” House at 179 Dixwell Ave. shut its doors in 2003 after serving as a community hub for over 75 years. At a press conference Wednesday, Fernandez called for bringing a community center back to the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods — though not in the same physical building that has stood dormant for a decade as a symbol of lost opportunities for young people..
Fernandez spoke about the Q House as he unveiled a broader youth policy and a new campaign song, “One Love, One City,” authored by 14-year-old campaign intern Moises Perez as a riff on a Bob Marley classic. (Click on the play arrow above to watch Perez and his sister, Katherine, perform the song along with 8‑year-old Henry Fernandez, Jr. and grown-up supporter Rafael Ramos.)
Fernandez is one of four Democrats — along with Toni Harp, Justin Elicker and Kermit Carolina — who are running in a Sept. 10 primary to replace retiring 10-term incumbent Mayor John DeStefano.
At a press briefing Wednesday at his Blatchley Avenue campaign headquarters, Fernandez listed the Q House as one of four youth agencies that have closed in recent years. The others: Hill Cooperative Youth Services in Trowbridge Square; the YWCA; and Latino Youth in the Hill.
Each served “hundreds of children,” Fernandez said. “They closed and nothing was put in their place.” Other youth agencies, including LEAP, have suffered budget cuts, he added.
Fernandez (pictured) called for rebuilding the infrastructure of youth programming in the city. He said Dixwell and Newhallville in particular need their own community center to serve the role the Q House did.
He called for establishing an experienced board of directors to revive the Q House, and put a “clear strategy” in place. He committed to reviving the Q House at a new location.
“The Q House is in incredibly bad shape,” he said. “It would cost more to renovate it than to build a new structure.” The Q House wasn’t built for a youth center, he argued: It doesn’t have a gym or a swimming pool, and it has too many offices. It has too many stairs, which make it hard for seniors to enter and cause people to fall in the winter.
“We do need a new physical structure in Dixwell/Newhallville for youth and seniors,” he said. He called renovating the former Goffe Street Armory is one option, adding the idea “needs further review” first. He said the final product should be a center that houses seniors and young people, to promote intergenerational learning.
Fernandez said the Q House could be revived at first without a central building. “They can start using the New Haven Public Schools,” he said.
That’s exactly what the youth agency LEAP did in its earlier days, Fernandez said. Fernandez co-founded LEAP and served as its executive director for the first seven years, from 1991 to 1997. The agency grew into a national model, then shrank due to budget cuts.
Candidate Harp has also called for reviving the Q House quickly, using public school space to do so; click here to read more of her remarks to the Chamber of Commerce on the subject.
Fernandez called for expanding youth services across the city by using existing school space, reviving the Q House, and helping existing youth agencies like LEAP, JUNTA and the Boys and Girls Club expand.
Katherine and Moises Perez have been volunteering for Fernandez’s campaign.
Fernandez, the former city economic development director, also called for expanding a program at City Hall called Youth@Work, which pays teens to work summer jobs. He said the program doesn’t do enough: Every year, hundreds of teens who want summer jobs don’t get them, Fernandez said. He called for raising money from private and government sources to expand the program, so that every teen who wants to work in the summer can do so.
He also called on local businesses and not-for-profits to offer more internships, so that teens learn about local industry and build relationships that will help them get jobs. The result, he argued, will be a lower crime rate.
To set an example, Fernandez said, he has taken on 17 unpaid teenaged interns this summer on his campaign.
Fernandez said his youth policy was authored by 12 young people, including Moises Perez, Fernandez’s 14-year-old across-the-street neighbor. Moises has been volunteering for Fernandez’s campaign this summer. He wrote the lyrics to a campaign song to the tune of Bob Marley’s “One Love” and performed it Wednesday at the press conference. Moises, a rising freshman at Co-op High, sang along with his sister, Katherine, a senior at Metropolitan Business Academy. The siblings sing together regularly at the Fuente de Restauración church in Hamden, they said.
Fernandez’s 8‑year-old son, Henry, Jr., (pictured) ‚a 3rd-grader at Edgewood School, also gave his dad his endorsement. The performers sipped on Minute Maid lemonade boxes after the big show.
After Wednesday’s press conference, city/town clerk candidate Sergio Rodriguez (pictured) stopped by headquarters to see Fernandez. He said he remains neutral in the mayor’s race: “I’m running my own campaign.”
Click on the play arrow to watch remarks Fernandez made on crime a day prior. (The video wasn’t available Wednesday due to a technical problem.)