Markeshia Ricks Photo
Alder Claudette Robinson-Thorpe might be sporting a cast on her left foot, but she’s not letting it dampen her plans to fight to keep her seat on the Board of Alders.
“I have a broke leg, but I am willing to do my part,” she said. “I will walk every day, but I need people to walk with me.”
The incumbent alder of the Beaver Hills neighborhood knows she has a fight on her hands. Not only is she facing a challenge from opponent Jill Marks, but Marks received the endorsement of the Ward 28 Democratic co-chairs and the Democratic Town Committee.
At a formal campaign announcement Sunday, Robinson-Thorpe said she has delivered for the neighborhood, helping bring more job access for locals through the creation of New Haven Works, more youth programs in the neighborhood in the form of the coming, state-of-the art teen center called The Escape at Bethel AME Church, and the renovation of Bowen Field.
Robinson-Thorpe said she has also stood with her fellow alders against raising taxes. She’s also broken with them on decisions like the recent one to defund a new Strong School.
Mayor Toni Harp said Robinson-Thorpe’s willingness to speak her mind on an issue is why she supports the alder, even when they are at odds on an issue.
“She’s someone that I’ve got to say, even when I’m not too terribly happy, she always represents this ward,” Harp said. “She has the courage to stand up for the people of this ward. You’ve got an advocate in Claudette. She will go to the mat for you against anyone and not everybody is willing to do that.
State Rep. Robyn Porter (pictured at left in the above photo) called Robinson-Thorpe, “a rebel with a cause, and the cause is this community.”
“If I lived in this ward, I would want her representing me,” she said. Porter said it takes a lot of “intestinal fortitude” to be an alder and to be able to work with constituents to resolve issues. She said Robinson-Thorpe gets that fortitude from “how she cares about this community.”
Robinson-Thorpe did not shy away from questions raised about her decline in attendance for regular Board of Alders meetings and committee meetings. Prior to this year, her attendance record was high, but health challenges over the last year kept her from attending meetings she said. She attended 5 percent of committee meetings last year. (Read here about alder attendance.)
“Success is not measured by how many meetings you attend,” she said. “Success is measured by what you do with your term in office, and I think my record speaks for itself.”
She pointed to her efforts to make sure that sidewalks and streets were paved on Ellsworth Avenue and Carmel Street, the restoration of the Beaver Hills pillars, and a lease for on a new police substation on Whalley Avenue.
Robinson-Thorpe said during the six years she’s been in office she has built good relationships with the mayor and fellow Carlton Staggers, Richard Spears, Richard Furlow, whom she sits next to in the aldermanic chambers at City Hall, and Brenda Foskey-Cyrus, who all were present Saturday.
Staggers, Spears, Foskey-Cyrus and Robinson-Thorpe, launched a dissident faction on the board last year, called the People’s Caucus, in opposition to the majority allied with Yale’s UNITE HERE unions. (Robinson started out her career backed by the unions.) She said she has also built relationships with a number of people who live in the ward, some of whom did not start out as supporters of her candidacy for alder when she first ran.
One of those people was Bob Caplan (pictured), who said Robinson-Thorpe’s willingness to sit down with him and talk about what he saw as the issues for a diverse community brought him around. “She talks frequently with constituents and knows the importance of having a feel for the issues,” he said. “She knows people in each of the communities in this ward and that helps her be effective.”
Robinson-Thorpe said if she is reelected she will focus on repairing the Goffe Street Armory, traffic-calming projects in the ward like speed bumps, and the eradication of distressed properties. She held her announcement event Sunday on the front porch of a recently rehabilitated property at 86 Hudson St. to emphasize a commitment to eliminating blighted properties from the ward while simultaneously providing some jobs. (Click the video above to hear more of Robinson-Thorpe’s speech.)
“I will always maintain my integrity. I will never go along to get along,” she said. “I will always put my constituents first.”