THE INNER-CITY NEWS
MARCH 07, 2018
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MARCH 13, 2018
City’s West Indian Connection Celebrated
The Board of Alders Black and Hispanic Caucus closed out Black History Month by celebrating the city’s West Indian Connection with food, music, and dance. People from all over the West Indies who now call New Haven County home converged on the Hall of Records at 200 Orange St. last week to celebrate their island flavor and the rich history that they bring to the African diaspora. Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, who chairs the Black History program for the caucus said, that over the last 25 years there has been a boom in the number of West Indian people who call the Elm City and surrounding towns home. But program attendees also learned that West Indians have been immigrating to the city since the 1900s. Natives of St. Kitts and Nevis have the distinction of being among the first to arrive in New Haven. Morrison said it is important for the caucus to acknowledge the city’s West Indian connection and help break down the false narratives between African-Americans and their West Indian that pit them against each other. “Coming together through a program like this really shows there’s no real difference between us,” she said. “There are some cultural differences but we’re all black. We all have to embrace that. And that was the purpose of this program— encouraging folks to embrace one another.” Program attendees also got to hear from Carlah Esdaile, who happens to be the marketing and communications director for Cornell ScottHill Health Center, and her cousin Eileen Huggins Williams. Their family is among the first West Indian families from Nives to settle here in New Haven. Music for the evening was provided by St. Luke’s Steel Band, while the Hamden Dance Academy put on a show. The audience got to get in on the act during the “Roll Call/Rep Yuh Flag” segment of the program. Food for the event was provided by Tropical Delight, Island Spice, Ninth Square Market Too Caribbean Style Restaurant, and Patty’s Caribbean Restaurant.
NATASHA SAMUELS PHOTOS St. Luke’s Steel Band providesthe rhythm for the evening festivities.
Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton, the first Jamaican elected to the Board of Alders and Karaine Holness, president of the Jamaican American Connection
Storyteller and poet Janice Hart.
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What Makes Artists Special?
certain communities in any town.” “People want to have certain places go, a certain vibrancy maybe, that you can’t put your thumb on it but this is what makes a place feel so great and alive,” he said. “Having creative people is something that helps make great towns and great cities.” Artspace New Haven Executive Director Helen Kauder offered practical reason New Haven might want to carve out affordable housing for artists: They’re not just artists. “What artists do when they’re not making art in their studio or on their kitchen table, a lot of them teach in public schools,” she said. “A lot of them teach in after-school programs, a lot of them teach at community colleges.” She said people sometimes don’t realize that artists are working as educators in schools and as art therapists in places like the veterans hospital. “Artists also are very interested in social change and using art to move hearts and minds on important political issues,” she said. “Their work helps educate people. Artists can help improve our community make civic improvements in a variety of ways.” Artists are good at forming communities that transcend differences, bringing people who might not otherwise associate with one another if not for art bringing them together, which is increasingly important in a politically polarized country, Kauder argued. “Art can be very healing for a time when our body politic is fractured,” she said. “There is a long tradition of creating affordable housing across the country in places where there are lost buildings like the one on Hamilton Street. When there is a decision to be made there will not be one person deciding but a group of people, in best circumstances, a diverse group of practicing artists who have a diversity in the kind of art they do and the kind of education they’ve had, in their ethnicity and cultural background and in age and that makes a strong committee.” Kauder said she suspects that artists who move into the rehabilitated space will show a body of work and get letters of recommendation from places they’ve taught, studied, or worked. They likely won’t be people who became “artists” just to get housing. “I think as long as there is a diverse group of respected peers, artists themselves ... they will help find and recruit next generation,” she said. “I think that is a way ensuring there is a group of people who live there focused on their work and focused giving back to the community.”
Helen Rosenberg offered another reason to support the plan: Reed Realty, which says it has obtained necessary private financing commitments, is in position to make this project happen now when nobody else has been able to for decades. She said at the February City Plan meeting that Reed Realty will need about $6.5 million for environmental cleanup. The $400,000 city contribution would come from the Economic Development Captial Projects bonds fund, while the state is expected to provide about $4 million under its brownfields loan program. The Harp administration is also seeking approval of a tax abatement agreement for the project, under guidelines in a state affordable housing law. It would freeze taxes at the current rate for 15 years after construction ends. The complex currently pays $46,000 a year in taxes to the city. The tax abatement is necessary in order to keep the rents low, Rosenberg said. She said she understands Radcliffe’s concern. She also noted that the proposal from Reed Realty is the only viable plan that has come forward in the many years that the building has been vacant. She said the developer’s plans for the site are about 90 percent complete. She expects that if the Board of Alders approves the grant and the tax abatement agreement, they could be back before commissioners by late summer or early fall. “Without redevelopment, the building probably will continue to slowly deteriorate, because the family that owns the property is struggling to maintain it,” she said. (Reed has an agreement in place to buy the complex for $1.7 million.) City Plan Commission Chair Ed Mattison said given that the building’s ongoing deterioration and the fact that no other developer proposes to build housing there, affordable or otherwise, there aren’t many alternatives. “The fact is that this building will probably just disintegrate if this plan is not approved,” he said. “It’s [a question of] the best as the enemy of the good.” Radcliffe said she’s not against the project, but creating housing specifically for artists to the exclusion of all the people in the city who need affordable housing didn’t sit right with her. “That one component is what I’m struggling with in my spirit, in my soul,” she said. “If you’re not an artist and who says who is an artist?”