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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15,2016 2023 - -August November 2023 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 02, 21, 2016

On Hotchkiss Street, Wilsonat Gilmore Her Proper Due Financial Justice a Ruthie Key Focus 2016Gets NAACP Convention New Haven, Bridgeport

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Co-Op Grad Becomes Next Downtown Alder Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org Kiana Flores grew up seeing how libraries, schools, and community centers could support a whole neighborhood, from its youngest residents to newcomers who needed help getting their bearings. As downtown’s newest alder-elect, she wants to bring that spirit of connection to how she governs, with climate-forward policy, a focus on affordable housing, and weekly working groups that bridge town and gown.

Flores, a junior at Yale and graduate of Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School who was raised in Fair Haven, ran unopposed for alder in Ward 1, which covers downtown to Howe Street and Edgewood Avenue in one direction, and Chapel and Elm Streets in the other. As she prepares to represent the area, she’s focusing on the New Haven moments that have shaped her, from years at Junta for Progressive Action to grassroots climate activism that has grown into a youth-led movement.

When she takes office Jan. 1, she will replace Alder Alex Guzhnay, another lifelong Fair Havener and Yale student who announced over the summer that he would not be seeking reelection. During his tenure, Guzhnay sat on the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission, the term for which ends in December of this year. Flores said she does not yet know if she is interested in taking his seat.

“When Alex said, ‘I’m not going to run for reelection this year,’ it kind of felt like a natural transition into this role, given that I had had all of these experiences in New Haven,” she said Tuesday afternoon, soaking up the sun outside the New Haven Free Public Library polling place as Ward 1 voters trickled in. “I had this experience with the New Haven Climate Movement, and this desire to move past the Yale bubble and get more involved in my city while I’m still here.”

Flores' interest in civic life—before she even had the words to call it that—started in a multifamily home off Chatham Square Park in the city's Fair Haven neighborhood. The middle child of Honduran immigrants, she got to know Fair Haven through its deeprooted community organizations, particularly Junta for Progressive Action and the Fair Haven Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library.

At Junta, she learned to trust neigh-

New Haven Climate Movement members Alissa Boutviseth, Alia Salem, and Kiana Flores at an event in February 2020, before COVID-19 hit New Haven. Lucy Gellman File Photo.

borhood adults while her mom took English classes, and she received childcare in the back room. After school or on the weekends, her family would spend hours at the neighborhood branch library, attending film screenings and checking out books.

As she got older, she learned to look forward to celebrations on the Quinnipiac River and through the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association (CHNA), which held annual costume and halloween parties that became the stuff of Fair Haven legend.

Because most of her relatives still live in the neighborhood, she's never away from it for very long.

"I think it was really great to be able to see how the community would work together to uplift itself," she said.

"There was just such a great sense of community. It was a really amazing place to grow up. There was so much emphasis on making sure that kids, like, had things to do. It was such a welcoming community."

As Flores got older, she grew to love Fair Haven's role as a self-sustaining business district, where independent bakeries and restaurants sat shoulderto-shoulder with healthcare clinics, social service organizations, small, well-stocked botanicas, and the perfect place to find a quinceañera dress.

On Grand Avenue, she discovered, there was nearly everything a city resident could need, from grocery stores that sold jícama, calabaza squash and bags of dried hibiscus to pharmacies that kept them up to date and informed on their vaccines.

While Fair Haven was and is her

first home, Flores became interested in downtown as a teenager, while studying the clarinet at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School.

During school hours, she worked diligently under band director Patrick Smith, braving the online pivot after Covid-19 hit in the spring of her junior year. In the afternoons, she took classes at the Neighborhood Music School (NMS), grateful for the exposure to other young musicians that a scholarship opportunity granted her.

It was during that time that climate activism also caught her attention.

Even then, Flores could see the effects of climate change, which appeared Tuesday afternoon as New Haven turned from wet and gray to almost balmy within hours. When she helped form a youth arm of the New Haven Climate Movement, arts seemed like a logical way in. She has since folded poster-making, drumming, music, and costumes into the group's work.

"It was just so easy to tap into that community," she said.

That activism is still at the front of her mind when she thinks about her new role to-be on the Board of Alders.

Currently, Flores’ priorities include affordable housing, cyclist and pedestrian safety, and more climate-forward policy for building developers, whose work is directly tied to greenhouse gas emissions. In part, she sees her role as continuing the groundwork that Eli Sabin has laid, first in Ward 1 and now in Ward 7 (downtown and East Rock).

"I think it'd be really great to really look at these issues and policies, to see where we can spark innovation and

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get these policies passed," she said.

"That's kind of where my head is at."

Flores with State Sen. Martin Looney.

While she will be representing downtown, she is also thinking about how to foster the feeling of tight-knit community that she always drew from her Fair Haven neighbors and the surrounding neighborhood. As Alder, Flores intends to create a Ward 1 "policy team," a mix of Yalies and non-Yale New Haveners who can meet weekly, and talk policy, from mega-landlords to bike lanes.

She said she's also thinking about the role that the New Haven Green can play as a shared gathering and civic space as part of her ward.

Along the way, there have been little signs from the universe that she's very much ready. Last semester, she was taking a course taught by former Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. about political life in New Haven, and learned about several of the pro-immigrant measures he implemented during his 20-year tenure. When the class got to a video on the Elm City ID Card, Flores was amazed to see her uncle lining up outside of City Hall.

"It made me realize the importance of local policy," she said. "I think a lot of people nowadays put such an emphasis on national and international politics. And that's all very important!

[But] I think sometimes people don't value the services that a city can provide to its people, and that's something that I really took to heart."

Tuesday, Flores found herself already providing constituent services as voters stopped by to ask questions that

ranged from ballot measures to polling locations. When a driver pulled up to the curb asking for help finding a polling place, Flores jogged over, happy to help. The driver stuck his head out the window, and gave her a name and address to check.

Flores was ready. Pulling out her phone, she typed in a Temple Street address to the Secretary of State's website, and waited a beat as the page loaded. Then she gave directions to 200 Orange St., which is the city's Hall of Records. The car pulled away with a chorus of thanks.

Back at her table, State Sen. and President Pro Tem Martin Looney looked over a spray of sun-dappled campaign fliers, beaming as he listened to her description of growing up in Fair Haven. Looney also grew up in the neighborhood, on Wolcott and later Woolsey Streets. On recent visits back—which he still represents in the state legislature—he too has waxed poetic about the value of the neighborhood branch library in his life.

"I'm so pleased that we've got someone with strong New Haven ties running," he said, trading notes on Yale's residential colleges (Flores is in Pierson; Looney's son was in Saybrook) and how often Flores goes home to see her family and get a home-cooked meal. Before heading out, he made sure to give her his cell phone number, in case she needed anything.

"Great meeting you!' he said. He added that after reading about her candidacy in the New Haven Independent, he was excited to see a Fair Havener on the ballot.

As the sun rose overhead, Yale student Adrian Benzon stopped by to cheer Flores on and cast his vote. A senior studying education and English at the university, he said that the issues closest to his heart are public education and advocacy around homelessness.

While Benzon is originally from Nevada, he switched his registration in 2019, to vote for Eli Sabin in a race against Republican Chris Marcisz.

Tuesday, he said he was excited to vote for Flores, who has become both his peer and his friend during their time at Yale.

"Even for someone who is like, a temporary resident of New Haven, I think it feels important to engage with the city in this way," he said. "And so now, it's like, I actually know and am friends with Kiana, and trust her."

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

On Hotchkiss Street, Ruthie Wilson Gilmore Gets Her Proper Due Danielle Campbell, The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org On Hotchkiss Street, a haloed, larger-than-life Ruthie Wilson Gilmore turned her face toward the sun, flowers bursting into bloom along her neck and shoulders. In her hands, a fern tilted gently in the direction of the light. Beneath it, orchids continued to sprout, bright as they spread their petals in every direction.

Closer to the sidewalk, a real-life Ruthie Wilson Gilmore stepped forward to speak. As smiles abounded, cups of sparkling cider began to make the rounds. It was time for a toast—to art, and also to freedom, and to futures.

That was the scene on a recent Sunday, as close to 50 creatives, abolitionists, educators, students and artists gathered at Possible Futures to celebrate the mural of abolitionist and scholar Ruthie Wilson Gilmore, which went up this summer outside the beloved community bookspace. The work of artist Jess X Snow and a dedicated team of creatives and community volunteers, the finished work both honors Gilmore’s past and present, and makes the future she envisions feel entirely possible.

“The work of abolition is already happening everywhere all the time,” Gilmore said. “And in most places where people are doing this work, they do not call it abolition. Nor need they.

The point is not the name. The point is the purpose and if the purpose is to make the abundance of life possible, so that everywhere where life is precious, life is precious. They are doing abolition in projects, great and small.”

The mural has been months, if not longer, in the making. Inspired by her former students’ mapping of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous history at Metropolitan Business Academy, educator Nataliya Braginsky spearheaded the project earlier this year, after connecting with Snow and with Daniel HoSang, a former student of Gilmore’s who is also a member of the Anti-Racist Teaching & Learning Collective (ARTLC). Braginsky has worked with HoSang, who put her in touch with Gilmore, for several years.

In the spring, Braginsky also ran an Intergenerational Abolitionist Project book club and working group out of Possible Futures with then-James Hillhouse High School senior Elsa Holahan. Holahan is now a freshman at Yale.

Sunday, Holahan spoke about the uncomfortable connection between public schools in America (including the New Haven Public Schools) and the prison industrial complex, a tie that

Danielle Campbell Photos. has propelled her own activism for years. As a member of Students for Educational Justice, she helped lead "Students Over SROs" a statewide campaign to get police (SROs, or school resource officers) out of schools while expanding funding for student mental and emotional health support services.

She noted how her own lived experience in the public school system helped create a context for Gilmore’s work, and a certain urgency around making it visual.

“Throughout my time in the New

Haven Public School District, there are many comparisons of our schools to prisons,” she said. “To enter the building, we shuffled through metal detectors with our bags subjected to searches. Armed officers from the New Haven Police Department lined our hallways carefully surveilling me and my peers. And our movement and being was restricted within the building's four walls in various ways.”

Many of the speakers also spoke about their fears, frustrations, and personal and collective triumphs in creating

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the mural. Project Manager Gavriel Cutipa Zorn, who helped steer a series of community painting days in New Haven, spoke about the delays that the team could not have anticipated, including June rainstorms and a shifting timeline once the team had arrived.

Shifting the focus to Gilmore, who sat beaming in the audience, Zorn noted the importance of giving people their flowers while they are still alive. He shouted out the importance of being in community together, particularly among educators and abolitionists.

“Contrary to a world that believes that loneliness is the only way to exist, we can build hope together by committing ourselves to making a new thing again, again, and again,” Zorn said.

Zorn and others also directed viewers to text on the mural that defines and describes abolition, written in part for passers-by who may not know what abolition is, or may already practice it but not have the vocabulary for it.

With HoSang, Yale students Sunehra Subah and Aden Gonzales created a curriculum to display across from the mural, including examples of how abolition shows up in food, housing, decarceration, education, and healthcare.

“I was returning a lot to ‘Howdid I first learn about abolition?’" Subah recalled. "How has someone who's never heard of the word abolition before … how would they approach it?

Because it isn't just about dismantling but also rebuilding and imagining together and what does that look like?"

Sunday, a multigenerational group of attendees took their time with it, some reading the examples with small children in tow. As she looked over the curriculum, community member Elizabeth Nearing said she was excited to see Gilmore’s legacy get its proper due in New Haven. Earlier this year, she contributed to a GoFundMe for the mural, and later painted a few blades of grass on the mural itself.

“I want it to be working towards people getting free, and also looking for where that exists already in New Haven,” she said. “One of the things I love about New Haven is that there are so many people who are like, thinking in beautiful, creative ways about moving towards freedom.”

On Sunday, it seemed that many of them were inside Possible Futures, as the bookspace filled with the gentle hum of conversation, of friends catching up, of Gilmore taking time to chat with people who waited patiently in line for a chance to meet their abolitionist shero. While Gilmore described herself as shy, she made space for each attendee, smiling so big it lit up the room several times throughout the afternoon.

“She said, ‘Freedom is a place, and we make it, and we make it, and we make it,’” Nearing said before meeting Gilmore, a copy of Abolition Geography in one hand. “And that really sits with me, with how much of our practice is to move towards freedom. And to think about what they were saying about abolition as a way of being.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Hundreds Celebrate 51st Links Gala

by LISA REISMAN

The new haven inadependent

The crowd listened, rapt, as Diane X Brown told her story.

The scene was a lavish Saturdaynight black-tie affair in the ballroom of Hamden’s Cascade Fine Catering to celebrate the 51st anniversary of the New Haven Chapter of The Links, a historic Black female advocacy organization rooted in community service and philanthropy.

“I was that little Black girl born and raised in Newhallville,” said Brown, among the six honorees at the gala.

“I was that young person that damaged her credit and needed to get it repaired, that single mother who needed some place for their child to go after school, for tutoring, for mentoring.”

Which is why, Brown, the long-time branch manager at Stetson Library, told an animated dressed-to-the-nines audience of 300, “people don’t see me as a librarian. They see me as family, as community, as someone that cares.

They see me as them.”

2023 Book Award recipients from New Haven Chapter of The Links.

The New Haven chapter, the oldest in the state, is composed of more than 40 members, and has distributed over $400,000 in scholarships to local students in its 51 years of existence, according to event co-chair Sheila Carmon.

“Our programs are designed to empower and uplift those in marginalized communities,” she said amid the lush stylings of the David Davis Trio in the chandelier-lit ballroom.

Emceed with keen wit by longtime arts champion John Motley, who also served as live auctioneer, it was a “party with a purpose,” as Shuana Tucker-Sims, national vice president of The Links, put it.

That purpose: to raise funds, including those from the live auction and live donations, “to enhance the quality of life in the New Haven community and create brighter tomorrows for deserving scholars to continue their education beyond high school.”

Dr. Chaka Felder-McEntire brought a group of high school students with her to the podium to accept her award.

“I don’t go anywhere without them,” said Felder-McEntire, the founder and executive director of Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Programs, a statewide nonprofit college access organization that offers free SAT test prep, one-on-one tutoring, and a summer college application boot camp, among other programs, to promote

LISA REISMAN PHOTO Sheila Carmon, Dr. Chaka Felder-McEntire (second from left), and Higher Heights high school students at Links annual gala.

Diane X Brown.

post-secondary success for underrepresented students.

Felder-McEntire said her organization, founded in 2004, has helped over 10,000 students achieve a 100% graduate rate, while securing over $10 million in college scholarships and grants.

“I was always the only Black woman in all of my classes,” said FelderMcEntire. “That was extremely discouraging and encouraging, discouraging because I couldn’t be my true authentic self, and encouraging because it empowered me to say I had no choice but to do this, so I could open up the door for whoever else was coming through.”

“I brought these students with me,” she added, “so they could learn this space.”

In accepting her award, Rise Nelson, director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility at Yale Library, recalled how she drew inspiration from a portrait of Edward Bouchet, the son of former enslaved people, first Black graduate of Yale College, and the first Black person to receive a Ph.D. in physics from an American university.

“I said surely if he could make it through that experience, I could do it,” she said.

“Growing up [in New Haven], this was kind of an intimidating place, this wasn’t for us,” she said. “And so this is about being able to be on the inside, opening doors, and not just propping them open, but inviting people in, going out and saying I need you to be a part of this as well.”

Anthony McDonald, who was recognized for “providing access to programming for many different audiences throughout greater New Haven” as executive director of Shubert Theatre, sounded a similar refrain.

“We want to make sure this community sees themselves represented on our stage and it’s the same reason we bring 2,000 kids per season to the Shubert for zero dollars,” said McDonald, who’s brought to the Shubert the National Dance Theater company of Jamaica and the Dance Theater of Harlem, as well as companies from Puerto Rico and India.

“I am one of four people of color to run a broadly-presenting touring house in America, and oftentimes us folks of

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color, all we need is opportunity,” said McDonald, a first generation American with degrees from Howard University and Columbia.

“An organization like The Links is living proof that when you give people opportunity, when you give them a chance to do what they do, amazing magical things will happen,” he said.

Dr. Keith Churchwell, outgoing president of Yale New Haven Hospital, discussed the adversity of “newness” in his postgraduate training in cardiovascular disease and nuclear cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and then on his arrival at Yale in 2015.

“As an African American physician, as a gentleman of color, there was a learning on both sides of the street,” said Churchwell, who was known for his “Walk with a Doc” sessions on Saturday mornings in the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods of New Haven.

Karaine Holness, owner of Hair’s Kay Beauty Salon on Ashmun Street, co-founded the Jamaican-American Connection, an organization that has as its mission to support and empower those of the Jamaican and Caribbean diaspora.

“We have properties here, businesses, so this gives us a voice, and a way to support immigrants in jobs, or settling in,” said Holness, who also founded the New Haven Caribbean Heritage Festival.

One example is Shamar Wilson, a native of Jamaica, golf prodigy, and Albertus Magnus student. When Shamar unexpectedly lost financing for his education last year, her organization initiated a vigorous fundraising campaign to ensure that Shamar could continue his studies and pursue golf professionally.

“The difference between the haves and have-nots is opportunity,” she said. “Shamar came into our life and we realized we could not allow him to lose this opportunity. He knows he has a community behind him, so it’s a good feeling to know we’re a part of his story.”

Soon the live auction was concluding and Chapter president Toni Harp was exhorting attendees to “get down.”

“Our motto is connection and friendship,” said co-chair Carmon, as DJ Herman Ham transformed the celebration to dance mode. “Linked in friendship, connected in service. That hasn’t changed in 51 years, and that’s because it’s everything.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Lawmakers and Medical Staff Push for Yale-New Haven Health’s Purchase of Struggling Healthcare Network

by Mike Savino The new haven inadependent Lawmakers and medical staff urged the state Monday to move along the approval process for Yale-New Haven Health’s bid to buy healthcare networks owned by Prospect Medical Holdings.

Yale-New Haven is looking to buy Waterbury HEALTH and Eastern Connecticut Health Network amid ongoing complaints that the two networks are struggling to pay bills under Prospect’s ownership.

Medical staff painted a bleak picture of the hospitals, raising concerns that one or more facilities could close if for-profit Prospect isn’t allowed to sell off the facilities.

“I’m surrounded by dedicated healthcare workers who just want to do their jobs, take care of their patients and make sure that their communities are safe and well cared for,” Waterbury Hospital pulmonologist David Hill said.

Hill said Prospect’s financial woes have led to difficulties maintaining supplies and even billing patients for services.

Yale-New Haven announced in February 2022 that it entered into an agreement to buy the two networks, which include a total of 708 beds across Waterbury Hospital and ECHN’s Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals.

The two sides have since been awaiting approval from the Office of Health Strategy, which must approve a certificate of

need for all hospital mergers.

Those talks include Yale-New Haven’s request for state aid to offset the $435 million price tag to buy the facilities from Prospect, which has accumulated debt and cut services.

Yale-New Haven has not disclosed the final figure, but reports indicate the healthcare network is seeking $80 million in state aid.

Speakers at the press conference Monday said OHS should move the process along and approve the merger.

They warned that a hospital closure would be devastating for both the surrounding community and for other hospitals that would need to take on additional patients.

“They (Yale-New Haven) could walk away and if they walk away, there is no other buyer,” said Saqib Naseer, a cardiologist with ECHN. Naseer expressed concern that the Office of Health Strategy will put too many conditions on Yale-New Haven, and that could lead to the healthcare network leaving.

Yale-New Haven declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for OHS also did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for Waterbury HEALTH said she was aware some staff “feel compelled to participate in this event due to its relevance to our future,” but she distanced Prospect from the event.

“While we respect the rights of our em-

Sen. Saud Anwar, co-chair of the Public Health Committee and a doctor at ECHN. (Mike Savino/ CTNewsjunkie) ployees to engage in civic activities, pawith a series of decisions, including selltient care remains our utmost priority,” the ing the networks’ buildings to a real estate spokeswoman, Lauresha Xhihani, said. holding company that charges the hospitals “We are continuing to provide quality, rent. compassionate care to our patients today, They also said the company has failed as we do every day.” to make important investments in areas like Medical workers were especially critical cybersecurity, leading to a cyber attack in of for-profit Prospect Medical, which acAugust at all 16 Prospect-owned hospitals quired the two networks in 2015. nationwide.

They said Prospect put ECHN and WaStaff said the cyber attack forced the terbury HEALTH in dire straits financially hospitals to divert some patients elsewhere,

overcrowding unprepared emergency rooms. They also said they had difficulty billing patients for services, creating even bigger financial problems for already cashstrapped hospitals.

“I never would have thought in my life that I would come across a situation like this,” Dushyant Gandhi, president of ECHN’s medical staff, said.

Sen. Saud Anwar, chairman of the legislature’s Public Health Committee, said the Office of Health Strategy has already taken too long.

He also said he doesn’t want Lamont to “bail out” Prospect’s shareholders by contributing state aid to cover any debt, though. He’d prefer to see Attorney General William Tong find a way to make Prospect pay for any deficiencies.

Lawmakers said Prospect’s ownership should demonstrate that the state should change how it evaluates proposals by forprofit companies looking to purchase hospitals.

“I think we need to learn from this and see that it doesn’t happen again,” Rep. Jason Doucette, D-Manchester, said, noting Prospect promised to invest in the hospitals when it sought approval in 2015.

They also said they want to look at other reforms, such as speeding up the process when someone is looking to purchase a hospital.

The Connecticut Hospital Association

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

District Managers Cut Back Amid Cop Shortage

by THOMAS BREEN The new haven inadependent Fair Haven’s top neighborhood cop will now also oversee the East Shore, Fair Haven Heights, and Quinnipiac Meadows.

Downtown’s top cop will drop Westville / West Hills from his purview and take on Newhallville, Dixwell, East Rock, and Cedar Hill.

Those changes come as the city’s police chief has reshuffled and reduced the number of district managers — a neighborhoodbased position key to community policing — in the face of supervisor retirements and an expired police union contract.

Police Chief Karl Jacobson made those moves last week as he reassigned the sergeants and lieutenants responsible for overseeing the city’s 10 policing districts while cutting back on the total number of district managers from six to four.

“The community policing-based model is one [district manager] for each district,” Jacobson said in a recent interview with the Independent. That would mean 10 district managers citywide, as opposed to now only four. “I made a pledge to uphold that model. I’m disappointed that I have to temporarily put it on hold,” at least in regards to fully staffing district manager positions, as a wave of retirements among highranking officers has caused him to move around who’s responsible for which neighborhoods.

Per the latest district manager shakeup, the following cops are now assigned to lead the following districts: • Lt. Michael Fumiatti — who for years has led Fair Haven’s Police District 8 — will now also be the top neighborhood cop for the far east side-spanning Police District 9.

• Lt. Brian McDermott — who previously served as the top cop for the East Shore’s Police District 9, and who is currently a defendant in an alder-car-crash-focused lawsuit — will now serve as district manager for Westville/West Hills’ Police District 2, Dwight/West River’s Police District 4, and Beaver Hills/Edgewood’s Police District 10.

• Lt. Brendan Borer — who has served as the district manager for Downtown’s Police District 1 and Westville/West Hills’ Police District 2 — will remain as the top cop for downtown’s District 1 and will also take on Dixwell’s Police District 6 and Newhallville/East Rock/Cedar Hill’s District 7.

• Sgt. Jasmine Sanders will remain as district manager for the Hill’s Police Districts 3 and 5.

Two previous district managers who will no longer serve in their respective roles: Sgt. Jarell Lowery, who previously served as the top cop for Dixwell’s Police District 6 and Newhallville/East Rock/Cedar Hill’s District 7 and who has now been moved back to be a supervisor position in patrol.

And Lt. Ryan Przybylski, who previously served as the top cop for Dwight/West River’s Police District 4 and Beaver Hills/ Edgewood’s Police District 10, will replace the retiring Lt. Jason Rentkowicz as the head of the police department’s train-

LAURA GLESBY / THOMAS BREEN FILE PHOTOS New Haven's four district managers (clockwise from top left): Sgt. Jasmine Sanders, Lt. Michael Fumiatti, Lt. Brendan Borer, Lt. Brian McDermott. ing academy. items still under negotiation between the engage in the process,” the police union’s Elicker administration and the union. social media posts read.

Jacobson told the Independent that this Those posts continue: “Underpaying and district manager shuffle and cutback comes “I think that we’re close at some points,” after more supervisors than expected put he said. “I think we’re getting to a crucial diluting current benefits of police officers hurts our ability to retain and recruit the time, because we really need a contract.” in their retirement papers by the deadline of Oct. 31. He said that the department He said the expired contract is affecting the Finest, and ultimately has a negative impact department’s recruitment efforts as well. on public safety. That should be a serious has lost seven supervisors in just the past On Dec. 1, he said, a class of 20 to 25 new concern for Mayor Elicker, but he is clearly six months. police recruits should begin. “Two of those not focused on running the city. Instead, What has he heard from soon-to-depart he’s focused on his own future political people [have already] made it known to us officers about why they’re retiring, and why now? they are going to other departments,” in ambitions. That’s not the job he was elected to do. New Haven police officers show up “Most of them are saying the uncertainty Hartford and Milford, he said.

Jacobson said that the police department and do their jobs every single day, because of the contract” is a primary reason, Jacobson said, along with better pay and bencurrently has around 330 police officers on that’s what Elm City residents expect of us. staff, with roughly 65 full-time vacancies.

It’s time for Mayor Elicker to start doing efits elsewhere.

Police Union Contract Negotiations Stretch the same. The New Haven police union’s The police chief was referencing the police On current contract, which was retroactive to union contract, which expired back on June 2016, expired on June 30th of last year. In The city’s police union took up the sub30, 2022. the previous months of increasingly unreaJacobson said that the department will ject of its long-expired contract in a series sonable demands and position on the part have a sergeants test in the “next couple of Tweets last Thursday. of the city, this union ‘MAY’ have no other “Only eleven months into the year, and months, which will allow me to refill pachoice to enter the arbitration process.” trol” and then refill district manager slots.

Mayor Elicker is already checked out. We However, he cautioned, as the department have been out of a contract for 16 months In a Monday afternoon phone interview, “makes” new sergeants, “that leaves less and bargaining for just under a year, and Elicker disputed the police union’s social what I have seen from Mayor Elicker’s media posts as “inaccurate” and unhelpful officers” in patrol.

As for the police union contract, Jacob- team are delaying tactics, unreasonable “name-calling.” son declined to comment about any specific demands and a complete unwillingness to “We’ve been diligently working with and

6

engaging the union to settle on a contract,” he said. He said it is “just false” to claim his administration has delayed negotiations or been unwilling to engage.

As for the reduction in district managers citywide, Elicker stressed that this drop in the number of neighborhood top cops from six to four is “temporary” as the city works through a sergeants promotional exam.

“Big picture, cities around the nation have really been struggling to hire for police departments,” he said. “We are deeply committed to the district manager model, and want to get back to district managers in all 10 districts.” He said that on Sunday he signed a contract with the company that will facilitate the sergeants promotional exam.

Elicker praised district managers as cops whom community members know to call and meet at community management team meetings, and who are deeply knowledgeable about issues in any neighborhood.

From the local legislative side, Fair Haven Alders Sarah Miller and Claudia Herrera — who recently co-wrote an opinion essay for the Independent lamenting police department vacancies and a corresponding impact on public safety – have called for their colleagues to host a workshop with the city’s police chief, police union president, “and all relevant officials to discuss the New Haven Police Department’s staff shortages.”

Their opinion essay called out how, under the current contract, a starting New Haven officer earns $50,745, a starting officer in Bridgeport earns $69,118; a starting officer in Hartford earns $63,591, and a starting officer in Waterbury earns $78,654.

Miller’s and Herrera’s proposed order calling for a workshop on police staffing shortages has not yet been assigned to a committee.

“The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) is called upon to respond to various issues in our great city, with ever-increasing demands, and is facing dangerously low staffing levels,” Herrera’s and Miller’s proposal reads. “Also, the oneyear absence of a union contract makes hiring and retaining police officers challenging. The NHPD staff shortage negatively impacts our neighborhoods’ safety and quality of life and affects the economic development of our small businesses and lowincome, working-class communities.”

Asked about if and how he thinks the police department staff shortage has impacted public safety in New Haven, Elicker noted that “all of our overall crime in the city is trending downtown, with the exception, tragically, of homicides, and our officers are doing incredible work. They’ve taken many more guns off the street than last year. They’ve solved more homicides than in recent history. We’re making a lot of progress.”

0But, he said, “of course it would be helpful to have more officers on the force,” in no small part because of the very long hours that current officers are working because of the mounting number of vacancies.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Shubert Opens Broadway Season With Hope

by BRIAN SLATTERY The new haven inadependent

A bus driver has brought a busload full of stranded airline passengers to a camp in Newfoundland, in the middle of the night.

The passengers don’t really know why they’re there, and many of them are scared. When they arrive at the camp, the first passengers in line don’t want to get off the bus, and they don’t speak English. The bus driver doesn’t know how to get through to them. Then he notices that one of them is holding a Bible, and he knows his Bible.

He flips the pages to Philippians 4:6: “Be anxious for nothing,” the verse begins. He points to the page. The passengers read it, and understand.

“And that’s how we started speaking the same language,” the actors address the audience.

Come from Away — the deeply humane musical about what happened when 38 international flights landed at Gander International Airport in Newfoundland after U.S. airspace was closed in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 — kicks off the Shubert Theatre’s 2023 – 24 Broadway season. It’s a tremendous start to what looks to be a season jammed with hits, from Chicago (Dec. 7 – 10) to Company (Jan. 31-Feb. 4) to Annie (Feb. 29-Mar. 3) to Hadestown (Apr. 30-May 5) to Stomp (May 31-Jun. 1), with plenty of shows in between, including the Dance Theatre of Harlem, A Christmas Carol, and Randy Rainbow (visit the Shubert’s website for a full listing of its upcoming shows).

It’s fitting that the season begins with a show like Come from Away, as a welcome back to the Shubert this season. The show is improbable — and improbably moving — in several ways. As the Toronto Star reported in 2016, “who would have thought you could create an uplifting musical out of the existential horror that was Sept. 11? Lawyer Michael Rubinoff did,” and this “seemingly bad idea” turned out to be anything but.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO From the Shubert production of Come From Away.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Rubinoff had heard of the story of how the passengers from 38 planes were stranded for days in the tiny town of Gander in Newfoundland, how the local residents opened their homes to them, and how, years later, the passengers never forgot that kindness. Rubinoff had a theater background and felt sure the story could somehow be turned into a musical. He spent years looking for a writing team that shared his vision. In 2009, he found it in David Hein and Irene Sankoff, who were coming off the heels of a show called My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding. Hein and Sankoff headed to Gander, where they interviewed townspeople and gathered hundreds of personal stories.

On the tenth anniversary of the event, many of the people who had been stranded there returned for a celebration, which led to more interviews, and more stories. They developed the show in Canada. Its U.S. break came in 2013 when the Goodspeed Opera, in East Haddam, showcased it in a workshop

program. From there, it wended its way to Broadway, where it opened in 2017, becoming a critical and commercial success.

As a story, Come from Away works its power by foregoing many of the usual ways true stories are turned into fiction. It revels in the truthful details. Instead of creating a couple fictional protagonists, we meet a dozen characters, most of them based one-to-one on their real-life counterparts, with only a few liberties taken. Among the stranded passengers are a Texan woman and an English man who meet on one of the planes, American Airlines’ first female flight captain, a gay couple, and the mother of a New York City firefighter, desperate for news about her son. Among the Newfoundlanders are the mayor of Gander, the police chief, a schoolteacher, and a volunteer at Gander’s SPCA who’s married to an air traffic controller. All of their stories and more interweave and build on one another. As U.S. airspace remains closed and days pass, connections are made. Tenuous bonds form and

8

strengthen. Tensions rise, too. It all culminates in a big party. And then U.S. airspace reopens, the passengers resume their journeys. They fly back to their lives, and the residents of Gander resume theirs. But nobody is ever the same.

The general arc of the story isn’t what matters. What matters is what each person does within it, how they give and receive help, how they deal with the hardships in front of them. This makes Come from Away a true ensemble piece, as the 12 cast members — Kathleen Cameron, Danny Arnold, Addison Garner, Hannah Kato, Jason Tyler Smith, Andrew Hendrick, Shawn M. Smith, Stanton Morales, Trey DeLuna, Candace Alyssa Rhodes, Kristin Litzenberg, and Molly Samson — each have one or two primary characters to play, plus a handful more.

The musical is one act, almost entirely sung through with snippets of rapid dialogue. Timing, and fast timing at that, is everything. The gentle comedy of the everyday at the play’s very beginning, the dislocation that follows, the poignan-

cy and humanity and sparks of hope in each of the small stories, must be conveyed in a split second. This cast nails it all, so that the moments of sadness and beauty, despair and compassion, ripple fast over the audience. The effect is intense; around this reporter, several people cried, cathartically, through the entire thing.

The whole that the cast weaves out of many is cemented by the music, which is omnipresent and something of a character in its own right, especially when the band members — Harry Collins, Logan Mitchell, Gioia Gedicks, Azana Hightower, McKinley Foster, Isiah Smith, Spencer Inch, and Brandon Wong — intermingle with the cast during the party scene. As with the characters and dialogue, the music is drawn from reality; it’s redolent of the traditional music of Newfoundland, from its instrumentation to the structures of the melodies and harmonies to the emotions they evoke: big, strong, one part sadness and three parts joy.

It all adds up to a deeply resonant and powerful theatergoing experience, amplified by being in the same room, seeing it live.

If anything, the show might hit harder now than it did when it first opened. Since then, national politics has only grown more vicious, the social forces that divide us have only become stronger. In the face of that, Come from Away helps remind us that what really matters are the people around us, within arm’s reach, and the ways we can and do help each other all the time, not only in moments of crisis, but in the everyday, too.

Now as then — and as before then — the amount of harm a small number of people can inflict can be shocking. But thousands of tiny acts of kindness can add up to something, too, and to those who take part in it, it can matter more.

Come from Away runs at the Shubert Theatre through Nov. 11. Visit the theater’s website for tickets and more information.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Halsey Confirmed As New Social Services Chief

by LAURA GLESBY

The new haven inadependent

The Board of Alders officially approved local charter school founder Eliza Halsey to lead the city’s social services department — while passing new mechanisms to enforce elevator maintenance and salons’ health code compliance.

The final vote confirming Halsey’s appointment to city government took place at a Thursday evening full Board of Alders meeting in the Aldermanic Chamber of City Hall.

Mayor Justin Elicker appointed Halsey to replace Mehul Dalal as the city’s Community Services Administrator, overseeing a third of city departments including the Department of Community Resilience (focused on homelessness, mental health, and re-entry), the Health Department, the Youth and Recreation Department, the Department of Elderly Services, and most recently, the New Haven Free Public Library.

In an interview with the board’s Aldermanic Affairs Committee last month, Halsey said her priorities in the new role include expanding invest-

LAURA GLESBY PHOTO Eliza Halsey at Thursday's Board of Alders meeting.

ments in childcare and senior services.

She said she aims to take a regional approach to addressing the housing and homelessness crises; she praised the city’s plans to open a non-congregate homeless shelter on Foxon Boulevard with private rooms available for the “real acknowledgement to the trauma that the unhoused experience in the way that facility is being built.”

And that she hopes to broaden the

city’s Youth Connect program, which provides wraparound resources to teens at risk of being affected by violence.

Halsey has spent her career working in various local education nonprofits, including the after-school program LEAP, the career training organization Public Allies Connecticut, and the family childcare advocacy organization All Our Kin (where she served as

the executive director).

Most recently, Halsey founded and served as executive director of Elm City Montessori, New Haven’s only locally-authorized charter school, which has been able to autonomously budget over $4 million of New Haven Public Schools funding to serve its students since it opened in 2014.

Urging his colleagues to approve Halsey’s appointment, Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes said on Thursday, “Ms. Halsey spoke passionately about her life serving New Haven residents” to the Aldermanic Affairs Committee.

Nearly every alder present voted to confirm Halsey’s appointment, with one abstention from Ward 14’s Sarah Miller.

Alders also unanimously approved two long-awaited pieces of legislation on Thursday.

One was an ordinance amendment creating a way for the city’s Health Department to conduct state-mandated annual inspections of salons, including hair and nail salons, piercing and tattoo parlors, and other beauty-related businesses.

Another was an ordinance amendment that charges the Livable City Initiative (LCI), the city’s anti-blight agency, with enforcing a two-day deadline for landlords to fix broken elevators that serve as a lifeline for tenants with mobility-related disabilities that prevent them from being able to take the stairs.

The new law allows the city to fine landlords in violation of this timeline up to $250 per day. Previously, the city had a limited ability to pressure landlords to comply with local rules around working elevators.

“We crafted an ordinance to better protect our residents,” said Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola, who worked with colleagues and local disability advocates for years to better enforce elevator access in residential buildings.

Ellen Cupo, the chair of the alders’ Legislation Committee, stressed that broken elevators can “prevent residents with disabilities from performing daily, essential activities,” including life-saving tasks such as “going to the doctor” and “picking up medications.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Newhallville Church’s Roof Repairs Celebrated

by ALLAN APPEL

plication.

Vairo’s 11-year-old son Frankie was on hand, along with Montanaro and other Preservation Connecticut staffers, with a blow-up of the check that was presented at the Sunday morning service.

“Not only do these buildings house worship services,” reads the press release announcing 12 similar grants statewide, “they also provide important space for other groups to perform their work, including hosting soup kitchens, childcare, Boy/Girl Scouts activities, food or clothing banks, and recovery programs.”

In the case of Pitts Chapel, there is

something more.

Not only is the church, by virtue of its being in the Winchester Repeating Arms Historic District, on the National Historic Register, it also houses three original 1890s-1910 Tiffany stained glass windows, which line the back of the pulpit platform on the church’s south side.

The late Victorian-style windows, explained Preservation Deputy Director Christopher Wigren, were originally part of Center Church, on the Green, but were given as gifts to Pitts Chapel (and other area beneficiary organizations) when Center Church redesigned its interior in the 1960s.

“The roof is one of the key things that make for a stable environment for the windows,” Wigren added. He also said that the older portion of the Pitts Chapel church building dates back to 1914.

Alas, God’s house, like yours or mine, is always in need of ongoing repair, and next on the list for Pitts Chapel, are other big-ticket items like an elevator, a repaving of the areas outside, and a re-painting.

But at least the congregation, which for six months could not hold services in the main sanctuary, are now back there, a “loving and praying church,” as McClam described it, in a more physically secure setting.

Of the 12 statewide projects to receive these grants this year, only one other is in New Haven: a $15,000 grant for roof repairs at St. Paul’s Union American Methodist Episcopal Church on Chapel Street at Dwight.

gee Services (LIRS) – and Fugees Family in Columbus, Ohio.

From 2009 – 2019, Maggie was the founding Executive Director of Qatar Foundation International (QFI) based in Washington, D.C. Maggie and a dedicated team created a vision, mission, and programs focused on providing K‑12 students and teachers in public schools across the U.S., Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Germany access to quality Arabic language instruction and cultural resources including exchange trips.

As Maggie put it herself, “I’m excited about joining IRIS and an exceptionally dedicated, mission-driven team. I’m looking forward to getting

to know our clients, the team, and our incredible community of sponsors, volunteers, and donors. I have to recognize the big shoes I’m filling. Chris George has transformed IRIS over this 18-year tenure. His contributions to refugee resettlement in Connecticut have impacted thousands of immigrants, and his innovative approach to sponsorship has also been recognized nationally through the Welcome Corps program. I’m in awe of all he’s accomplished.“ Maggie will join us full-time at the start of the new year. We will invite you to get to know Maggie as well as celebrate Chris George’s immense accomplishments at IRIS over the years.

The new haven inadependent

The congregants of Pitts Chapel United Free Will Baptist Church are not only raising their historic sanctuary’s roof in dancing, singing, and exuberant prayer as they do every Sunday — now they are also able to fix it.

The badly leaking roof in question belongs to century-old Pitts Chapel at 64 Brewster St. in Newhallville.

On Sunday morning the church members, led by Pastor Darrell McClam, sent hallelujahs of gratitude aloft not only for the glory of being alive, but also to celebrate a vital $8,500 grant from Preservation Connecticut, which is enabling a roof replacement to commence in the coming weeks.

Preservation Connecticut, headquartered on Whitney Avenue, also provided, a similar grant to Pitts Chapel for furnace replacement in 2022, when the historic church’s furnace was leaking gas and had to be replaced on an emergency basis.

“The grants stepped in at just the right time,” said McClam, in his second year leading a church community that has about a hundred members, many of modest means and some poor, and simply does not have the resources to come up with those significant financial outlays on the spur of the moment.

In stepped Preservation Connecticut, a private state-oriented nonprofit, that has a special fund dedicated specifically to support historic buildings of religious organizations.

“Being a nonprofit,” said Preserva-

Christopher Wigren, Stacy and Frankie Vairo, Jane Montanaro, Lady Shalene McClam, Pastor Darrell McClam, and Mother Helen Jean Carr on Sunday.

tion Connecticut’s Executive Director Jane Montanaro, “we’re able to process more quickly.”

The group also deals in awarding the type of grant — the historic religious building maintenance and upgrade grants are capped at $15,000 each — “in smaller chunks that congregations can handle,” she added.

The grants are a one-to-one match, and the church, having raised its portion, is poised to hire a roofing company in the coming days, said Jacqueline Lewis, the church’s financial secretary.

While the money itself is state funding from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), flowing it through

Preservation Connecticut enables time-sensitive projects — like broken boilers and leaking roofs — to be addressed more nimbly, and, occasionally on an emergency basis, as was the case with the church’s heating unit in 2022.

Still it takes a mover-and-shaker within the church to make the grant happen and that mission was undertaken by Mother Helen Jean Carr, president of the church’s Home Mission. She was in touch with Preservation Connecticut’s circuit rider, or field service staffer for the area, Stacy Vairo, and together they fashioned what turned out to be a successful ap-

IRIS Picks New Executive Director

by STAFF

The new haven inadependent

Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) has selected Maggie Mitchell Salem to serve as its new executive director, nearly six months after Chris George announced that he was retiring after 18 years of leading the local nonprofit and making New Haven a national leader in refugee resettlement.

Salem is set to take over in January 2024 as the new head of IRIS. She joins IRIS from Tunisia, where she has been senior resident director for the National Democratic Institute since November 2020. Previously, she worked as the founding Executive

Director of Qatar Foundation International (QFI) from 2009 – 2019.

Salem brings to the position her experience working for NGOs as well as the U.S. government to negotiate cross-cultural collaboration.

See below for Monday’s email press release in full.

Maggie joins IRIS from Tunisia, where she has been Senior Resident Director for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) since November 2020, leading a team dedicated to improving inclusive, representative governance that addresses citizens’ priorities. She spent most of 2020 supporting refugee resettlement organizations in Baltimore – Lutheran Immigrant & Refu-

10

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Meet Laila Edwards, who is now the first Black woman to play for U.S. hockey team

by Abu Mubarik, Face2FaceAfrica.com History was made over the weekend when the U.S. national hockey team fielded a black player against Canada. She is in the person of Laila Edwards, a 19-year-old Wisconsin sophomore. She was on a forward line with Olympian Abby Roque and Badgers teammate Britta Curl in Los Angeles.

Her inclusion in the U.S. national team was no fluke nor was it tokenism. She earned it. According to The Athletic, as a sophomore at Wisconsin, Edwards is fifth in team scoring with 18 points in 12 games. Also, she was top-10 in scoring as a freshman en route to the Badgers’ seventh national championship. What is more, she was named to the WCHA all-rookie team. In 2022, she was an alternate captain on the U.S. team that won a silver medal at the U18 World Championships and was named tournament MVP. “It’s an honor to be the first Black woman on the national team, but

this team’s been around for a long time,” she said before the game, Andscape reported. “And not to sound ungrateful, but it would have been nice to have someone that looked like me on that team before me. I’m glad that I’m able to be that someone for another little Black girl out there.”

At 6-foot-1 — and skilled, Edwards, the second youngest of four children, grew up in Cleveland Heights. Her father played hockey as a recreational sport while her mother, Charone, helped coach them on the ice.

Edwards and her only sister Chayla, started with figure skating but moved to hockey full-time when she was around six years old. Edwards eventually fell in love with the sport and has since grown into it.

In elementary school, she played boys’ hockey and by the time she got to seventh grade, Edwards had attracted some of the top women’s hockey colleges in the nation. She was first sighted by Dan Koch, a longtime associate coach at Wisconsin.

At the time, she was not all that tall but her size made her a threat. “She

was able to beat people one-on-one.

She always had a heavy shot. And she’s very versatile,” Koch said. “She was just competitive. She wanted the puck on her stick and had a good skill set. Those were the things that really attracted us to her.”

However, when she got to eighth grade, she attended an elite girls’ hockey program at Bishop Kearney, a private school in Rochester, N.Y. She then went from 5-foot-6 to around 5-foot-10 between eighth and ninth grade.

A year after high school, she was still committed to Wisconsin and went on to score 147 goals and 413 points in 287 games while at Bishop Kearney.

Also, she trained with the Badgers and she eventually transitioned into the NCAA. Her historic moment came when in August, she got an email notifying her that she had been selected into the U.S. National Team player pool.

A month later, she was named to the Rivalry Series roster for the games against Canada in November.

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10/18/23 10:57 AM

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Youth Shelter Planned, But Not For Hazel St.

by NORA GRACE-FLOOD The new haven inadependent A local homelessness services nonprofit is looking to open the city’s first warming shelter exclusively for young adults — but is still searching for a location after scrapping a Newhallville church partnership in the face of community opposition.

Youth Continuum has secured funding to establish a 12-space overnight stop for teens and 20-somethings in need of a place to crash this winter, but has yet to name a spot as the cold season approaches.

The organization abandoned a plan to utilize a building on Hazel Street, owned by Mt. Calvary Deliverance Tabernacle, after Newhallville residents pushed back, citing concerns that such a site could fuel an uptick in crime.

Youth Continuum Executive Director Tim Maguire and Mt. Calvary Deliverance Tabernacle Pastor Robert Smith pitched their original idea to team up and bring that temporary shelter to 5 Hazel St., a vacant church building directly next to Newhallville’s police substation, during an open meeting led by the neighborhood’s community management team on Nov. 2.

The Thursday evening conversation shed light on the state of youth homelessness across the city — and the outstanding safety concerns of those living in an area disproportionately impacted by gun violence and other crime.

While some community members expressed support for the project, citing a crisis in housing availability and skyrocketing rents, others worried that the center would attract more troubled people to the area and create more crime.

Ultimately, Smith, who grew up in Newhallville and whose church is based in the neighborhood, said he decided to choose another use for the vacant church space not because he was convinced that the center would cause problems, but “because I’m a neighbor,” and he didn’t want to cause further stress to already traumatized friends and family.

“It’s hard for the community right now to really see and grasp how this location would be ideal because the whole nature of homelessness always brings question marks,” he said.

Smith, who works in New Haven Public Schools, said he is now looking into using the Hazel Street property for an elementary math tutoring program.

The future of the youth warming center, meanwhile, remains unclear.

All the while, the city continues to see an increase in homelessness. City government has sought to address that rise through the conversion of a Foxon Boulevard hotel, a vacant former Orchard Street school, and a Hill industrial building into spaces to sleep for those with nowhere else to go.

A community of Hill activists have also set up tiny homes on a private backyard and tents on adjacent public space to provide shelter for those displaced from government-cleared tent encampments. Warming Up To Youth Warming 5 Hazel St.

NORA GRACE-FLOOD PHOTO Mt. Calvary Deliverance Tabernacle Pastor Robert Smith (right), with Youth Continuum's Tim Maguire: "The community is hurting.”

Though the Hazel Street property is now a no-go, Youth Continuum has already secured funding from the United Way of Greater New Haven to launch a youthbased warming center.

The idea, as Maguire explained last week, is to establish a warm space where individuals between 18 and 24 years of age can spend cold nights between December and April, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. He said he had acquired enough funding for roughly 12 individuals to stay over each night.

No beds would be provided — just chairs and mats, plus hot coffee and perhaps some breakfast, and on scene staff who could help connect youth in need to other social services, like case management or rental assistance.

By keeping young people together, Maguire said that clients would have the ability to engage in peer to peer support, and potentially make friends or find potential roommates with which to split rent or otherwise bond together in the face of similar hardships.

“It would create another link in the chain in the system that we do as an agency,” Maguire said, noting Youth Continuum’s exclusive focus on combating homelessness among young adults.

He said that there are currently 700 adolescents within New Haven who are experiencing homelessness.

Youth homelessness merits targeted intervention, he said, not just because it is a growing crisis locally, but because outreach is particularly tricky among young people who typically couch surf from night to night as opposed to older populations who are more frequently out on the streets or in shelters.

Youth Continuum also already offers 12 crisis beds in New Haven, where youth can stay full-time in lieu of another safe, stable place to live. But getting into a shel-

At the Nov. 2 community meeting in Newhallville.

ter or emergency housing always takes time — not just because of full waitlists, but because of the referral and sign-on process – while many are in need of a walk-in option on nights when they might unexpectedly find themselves with no place to go in the freezing cold.

Maguire said that the Newhallville community meetings “made clear that the residents were not comfortable opening a center so quickly in the neighborhood.” After Smith had approached him about possibly teaming up to use Hazel Street for the center, Maguire said he had a mere week to apply for and hear back about cold weather funding. Because of the quick turnaround time with cold weather funding, he lamented that there wasn’t adequate time to get the neighborhood fully on board with the project.

In the meantime, he said his team is cur-

12

rently looking for another space, and considering setting aside a room in one of their own buildings to accommodate an overnight shelter. Though the cold weather season starts Dec. 1, he said he’s aiming to open such a site before January as time closes in.

“Warming Space” Or “Lion’s Den?” During a public input session called for by the Newhallville Community Management Team on the possibility of a warming center, Smith framed youth homelessness as a citywide problem that the neighborhood should take responsibility for helping to solve by supporting the use of vacant space for those most in need.

The Nov. 2 meeting took place inside the Newhallville police substation on Winchester Avenue, directly adjacent to the church-owned property at 5 Hazel St. “These are our kids, our neighbors, our

daughters, our sons, our nieces, our nephews,” he said. “If not us?” he questioned.

“Who?” the audience immediately responded. “If not now?” he asked. “When?” the audience called back.

A 12-person room to keep young people warm, he said, would not be a “crackhouse” or a “gambling den,” or even a “stab in the dark.”

He had reached out to Youth Continuum to partner on the project, he said, “because they have a system in place.”

Community member Ron Harrell was one of the night’s most outspoken opponents of the project.

“This is not a safe place,” he declared.

“You don’t know nothing about shoot-outs on Sundays,” he said to Maguire, asking, “why you wanna bring the youth over here anyway? It’s the lion’s den.”

He scoffed at the idea that those over 18 constituted “youth.”

“They’re not kids,” he said. They’re probably people who “must not have done right by their families,” and were therefore without a support system.

Many audience members shot back at that remark, like Warren Whits, who said that “not everybody who’s homeless is a criminal.”

Whits joined Smith and Maguire in pushing the fact that a growing number of young people are without housing simply because the rent is too high. Plus, he said, “people aren’t gonna be looking for help if they’re a criminal,” at a warming space next to a police station with security and other supervisory staff.

“This kind of reminds me of racism,” he countered, “making a judgment of someone because of their current condition.”

Still, others repeated the concern that rather than just stopping by the shelter to get a snack and some sleep, desperate people might congregate at the shelter and pose negative influences to their susceptible peers.

“You don’t wanna put them in that center where they’re easily manipulated,” said one woman named Dorothy.

Another woman named April said that “the biggest concern is safety.”

“People pull up in broad daylight right here, they pull out guns and start shooting,” she said, and “nothing happens about it…

If we had more support from our men in blue, I wouldn’t have to worry.”

Chanelle Goldson agreed: “Maybe we should have thought of a different location other than here, where there’s shootings in broad daylight.”

Another man, Brother Born, spoke up in support of the center. “I’m a gunshot victim. I’m in this wheelchair because of being shot in this community,” he said. He also runs multiple pop-up food pantries in the area. “I’m in touch with the people who need help,” he said. “I understand the homeless.”

“I know youth in our community who are sleeping in their cars, and have no place to go, and they work, and they’re still sleep-

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Overhaul Needed: Tackling Youth Incarceration and Racial Disparities Although Black males comprise just 13% of the total population, they represent an astounding 35% of those incarcerated.

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent@StacyBrownMedia

In its report, “System Reforms to Reduce Youth Incarceration: Why We Must Explore Every Option Before Removing Any Young Person from Home,” the Sentencing Project challenges the prevalent practice of youth incarceration. The study highlights the inefficacy of youth incarceration and underscores the urgent need for state and local youth justice systems to prioritize alternative-to-incarceration programs.

Research shows that it is rarely necessary or effective to incarcerate adolescent offenders, the authors concluded. Instead, incarceration often heightens the likelihood of repeat offenses, impedes educational and employment prospects, and exposes youth to harmful environments. Unsurprisingly, these negative impacts disproportionately affect youth of color, particularly African Americans.

According to the Vera Institute of Justice, more than eighty percent of

all arrests involve low-level, nonviolent offenses associated with poverty.

Further disconcerting, although Black males comprise just 13% of the total population, they represent an astounding 35% of those incarcerated. Additionally, compared to their white counterparts, Black youth are over four times more likely to be detained or committed to juvenile facilities.

The Sentencing Project said it wants youth justice leaders and legislators to recognize and fix the current failed

strategy, and deal with the racial inequalities. The organization supports using alternatives to incarceration in most cases, except when there is a clear danger to public safety. The Sentencing Project’s report delineates a comprehensive agenda of state and local reforms, drawing from successful implementations nationwide. The authors note proposed changes that include not sending children to staterun youth prisons for certain crimes, providing incentives to local courts

to avoid sending kids to state custody, and using the funds saved from releasing kids for other programs.

Officials at the Sentencing Project suggest making changes at the local level. They recommend reducing the number of individuals who are sent to prison early in the legal process. It also suggests changing the way probation is done so that it helps people succeed in the long term. Finally, the report recommends not putting young people in jail for breaking probation rules.

To effectively reduce youth incarceration, the report authors emphasized the need for collaboration between justice systems, families, and community partners. The authors insists that staff members who are highly motivated and trained must implement alternative-to-incarceration programs per core principles. They argue that efforts should be made to address the biases causing racial and ethnic disparities in confinement in the American youth justice system.

“The research is clear that incarceration is not necessary or effective in the vast majority of delinquency cases,” said Richard Mendel, Senior Research Fellow at The Sentencing Project.

“Most state and local youth justice systems continue to employ problematic policies and practices that often lead to incarceration of youth who pose minimal or modest risk to public safety. It’s essential that state and local jurisdictions seize every opportunity to keep young people safely at home with their families, in their schools, and communities.”

Questions about your bill?

Yale New Haven Hospital is pleased to offer patients and their families financial counseling regarding their hospital bills or the availability of financial assistance, including free care funds.

The New Haven Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (NHE3) is a business-support network partnering with entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) to build an inclusive and equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem for historically marginalized entrepreneurs in Greater New Haven.

With a focus on funding BIPOC-and Woman-owned businesses, NHE3 intentionally provides grants to help small businesses thrive.

By appointment, patients can speak one-on-one with a financial counselor during regular business hours. For your convenience, extended hours are available in-person at Yale New Haven Hospital once a month.

Date: Monday, November 20 Time: 5 - 7 pm Location: Children’s Hospital, 1 Park St., 1st Floor, Admitting Parking available (handicapped accessible) An appointment is necessary. Please call 855-547-4584.

Grant round dates: 2nd round opens on Dec 1st and closes on Jan 31st (review and awards: end of February) 3rd round opens on Mar 1st and closes April 30th (review and awards: end of May) 4th round opens on June 1st and closes July 31st (review and awards: end of August)

In light of COVID-19, patients may call 855-547-4584 any time during regular weekday hours to speak with a counselor on the phone.

Spanish-speaking counselors available.

13

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

It’s Not Just Keke Palmer: High-Achieving Women Are Not Immune To Domestic Violence A Journal of Population Economics study found that "women who earn more than their male partners are subject to a 33% increase in partner violence." By Keyaira N. Boone, BlackHealthMatters.com Intimate partner violence does not discriminate based on your bank account balance or relationship status.

Ask Keke Palmer. Palmer filed for sole custody of her 8-month-old child Leodis this week after her co-parent Darius Jackson reportedly physically abused her. According to the Los Angeles Times, Palmer filed documents outlining a consistent pattern of abuse and terror by Jackson. “Darius trespassed into my home, physically attacked me, knocked me over my couch and pinned me down, and stole my phone after I threatened to call the police,” she declared to the Los Angeles Superior Court. The Center for Disease Control defines intimate partner violence as “abuse or aggression that occurs in a romantic relationship.”

The timing of the alleged abuse coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which intensified violence against women and girls, according to the United Nations. Other information in the filing accused Jackson of berating Palmer and destroying her personal property. The filing also confirmed that the former couple had split up. The term “Intimate Partner” refers to current and former spouses and dating partners in the Center for Disease Control’s definition. Their interpersonal issues first courted public attention when Jackson drew ire on social

media for publicly criticizing Palmer’s outfit for Usher’s Las Vegas residency.

Former Spice Girl Mel B told Cosmopolitan how coercive control impacted her fashion choices during her former marriage to Stephen Belafonte in 2021. “I didn’t even know what color

I liked anymore because those choices were taken away from me for so long.

And I just accepted it,” said Mel B. Scene after scene of them fleeing, while clutching nothing more than a diaper bag and fear, have played out in popular culture. But they’ve excluded

the many powerful women, like Palmer, who have suffered as a result of intimate partner violence. This happens to women on stages, courts, and in boardrooms. Dr. Angela Mailis published Smart, Successful & Abused: The Unspoken Problem of Domestic

Violence and High-Achieving Women in 2019. “Just as many ‘smart and successful’ women are victims as the stereotype of an ‘un-empowered’ female,” said former Liz Claiborne CEO Jana Kasperkevic in a 2014 piece for The Guardian. Academy award-winner Halle Berry, Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Kelly Rowland, and former WNBA player and two-time Olympic gold medalist, “Mighty Ruthie” Bolton have each publicly addressed their experiences with intimate partner violence.

Palmer’s situation is another disturbing example of how domestic violence can penetrate even the most prosperous circles. A Journal of Population Economics study published in September found that “women who earn more than their male partners are subject to a 33% increase in partner violence and a 20% increase in emotional abuse compared to mean levels.” Psychologist and executive coach Perpetua Neo explained how powerful women can be inclined to invest time and energy into abusive relationships.

“High-performance women tend to be highly conscientious too,” she said in a 2019 interview with INSIDER. “It means they work really hard for their relationship. So they’re likely just to keep giving and giving and giving.

To learn more about intimate partner violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (800-799-7233; toll-free).

With a combined earning of $433M, here are the top 5 highest-paid Black football players for 2023

by Abu Mubarik, Face2FaceAfrica.com Until recently, Black soccer (football) players were the least-paid athletes in the world. Today, they are not only among some of the world’s wellpaid people but are also some of the richest thanks to their mega contracts.

According to Forbes, the world’s 11 highest-paid soccer players are projected to earn $995 million this season before taxes and agents’ fees. Saudi Pro League players account for more than half of the total $995 million, the magazine said. The highest-paid soccer player, per Forbes, is Cristiano Ronaldo. The Saudi Pro-League and Al-Nasser player is expected to earn $260 million.

Among the 11 highest-paid soccer players in the world are some Black players including Neymar Jr., Kylian Mbappé and Sadio Mané.

Neymar Jr. Neymar Jr. of Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal is the highest-paid black player in the world. He is projected to earn $112 million — $80 million on-field and $32 million off-field. Puma, Konami and Red Bull are some of his sponsors and he recently disclosed that he has a partnership with Portuguese horse breeding farm Team Campline, Forbes said.

Kylian Mbappé Kylian Mbappé is the second highest-paid black player in the world. Per Forbes, he is projected to earn $110 million- that is $90 million on the field and $20 million off the field. In 2022, he emerged as the highest paid highest-paid footballer courtesy of his contract with Paris Saint-Germain.

Mbappe was born on December 20, 1998, in Paris to his mother, Fayza Lamari, and to his father, Wilfred Mbappe – a French-Cameroonian

coach and agent. He made waves in the football world by signing for Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 when he was 18 and later became the second-most expensive player and the priciest teenage player in history with a transfer fee of €180 million.

Karim Benzema Karim Benzema currently plays for Al Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League.

He joined the Saudi giant from Spanish side Real Madrid. He was born in Lyon, but his parents are Algerians.

He made his senior debut for France in 2007 and became the nation’s fifth-highest all-time top goalscorer.

Per Forbes, he is the 5th highest paid player and the third highest-paid Black player in the world, earning $106 million, that is, $100 million on-field and $6 million off-field.

Mohamed Salah Mohamed Salah plays for English

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side Liverpool FC. The Egyptian soccer player nearly became Saudi’s most expensive soccer signing, with Al Ittihad reportedly offering a $190 million transfer fee. However, the deal was declined by Liverpool. Per Forbes, he earns $53 million; that is $35 million on the field and $18 million off the field.

Sadio Mané Senegalese star Sadio Mané became the highest-paid Black African player in the world when he joined Saudi Arabia club side Al Nassr following a season at FC Bayern. The money involved in his contract also made him the highest-paid Sub-Saharan African player and one of the world’s highestpaid players.

According to Forbes, he earns $52 million, that is $48 million on the field and $4 million off the field, making him the fifth highest-paid Black player in the world.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

COMING UP AT RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE

breathe burn Sunday, November 19 | 3pm | Lyman Center at Southern CT State University At this concert, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra premieres Joel Thompson’s (A Snowy Day, To Awaken the Sleeper) poignant elegy breathe/burn in memory of Breonna Taylor.

The program will also include Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1, Mark Adamo’s Last Year, and Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Why Did They Kill Sandra Bland? with guest cellist Jeffrey Zeigler and poet & activist Sun Queen.

“Black women deserved more, continue to suffer, and continue to be victimized. I pledge to listen more, defend more, and call attention to their trauma, brilliance, and truth. What will you do?”

-Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain

NOV 25 @ 8PM 203.438.5795 • RIDGEFIELDPLAYHOUSE.ORG

The Alice M. Ditson Fund

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ANOUSHKA SHANKAR ISIDORE QUARTET* MOMIX: ALICE JUSTIN WILLMAN SAMARA JOY DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD LIVE! 28 RANDY RAINBOW

NOVEMBER 2 4

LE CONSORT* JESSICA VOSK Cabaret

11 MOLLY TUTTLE & GOLDEN HIGHWAY Cabaret 17 AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE STUDIO COMPANY 30 MESSIAH SING!

DECEMBER 3 8

MACMASTER & LEAHY A Celtic Family Christmas HOLIDAY POPS

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

jorgensen.uconn.edu

860-486-4226 | @JorgensenUConn On the UConn Storrs campus Note: all artists, events, dates, programs and policies are subject to change.

15

Growing up in the early 1990s, Thuso Mbedu never dreamt of being an entertainTHE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, At 2023 ment figure. a very young age, she wanted to be a dermatologist, but after taking a dramatic arts class in the 10th grade, she became interested in acting. acting career has earned fame and Dr. Bill and Kathryn Lee. The Observer enjoys as rich a history as any other newspaper – Black, or white-owned. It beganHer with the vision of itsherfounders, fortune locally and internationally, rising cant contributions to the community.

By Stacy M. Brown torical importance of the Observer to become one of the most sought after ac- Among the recipients were Weber, NNPA Newswire Senior National through various mediums, including tresses from South Africa. At 27, she was Margaret Fortune, Chet Hewitt, and Correspondent@StacyBrownMedia a 100-page book, videos, and testimonamed in the 2018 Forbes Africa 30 Under Bishop Parnell Lovelace Jr. nials. Lee emphasized the Observer’s 30 List, and one of the 100 Most Influential SACRAMENTO, CA – In a daz- and the Black Press’s commitment to The Colour of Music Orchestra, Africans by New African Magazine. zling yet elegant celebration, the serving communities that often are unwhich celebrates Black classical comBorn on July 8, 1991, at the Midlands posers and performers, backed McSacramento Observer, a beacon of derserved by mainstream media.

Medical Center in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa- Combs during the evening and opened the Black Press, commemorated its “I was born in the Black Press, and Zulu-Natal in South Africa, to a Zulu moth- the night with a stirring rendition of 60th anniversary, bringing together I’m going to die in the Black Press,” er and Xhosa and Sotho father, she never “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” community leaders, supporters, and Lee declared. “The National Newsenjoyed the care of her parents who died acclaimed artists. The event, held at paper Publishers Association (NNPA) Adrienne Bankert, an award-winwhen she was barely four years old. She ning national news anchor, served as the landmark Sacramento Memo- represents that to me. I love NNPA, was raised by her grandmother, a very strict the Mistress of Ceremonies, and Rev. rial Auditorium in California’s capital and I love the Black Press.”

Thuso Mbedu. Photo -IOL school principal in school and at home. Mark Meeks of the City Church procity, not only honored the historical The NNPA is the trade association Reelbenediction.

Awards’ (Outstanding Actress Her name reflected the multicultural tribes ‘Black significance of the Observer but also of more than 230 African Americanvided the The event also – TV Movie / Limited Series), the ‘Hollyof her parents – Thuso is a Sotho name, highlighted its enduring relevance in owned newspapers and media compaincluded an invocation by Pastor TaAssociation TV Awards’ (Best Nokwanda is a Zulu name, and Mbedu is wood today’s dynamic media landscape. nies in the United States. The Observmara Critics Bennett and a Native American Actress in a Limited Series,byAnthropology Xhosa.

The Observer enjoys as rich a his- er is a proud member of the NNPA. Land Acknowledgment Albert TitSeries or Television the ‘Gotham Mbedu went to Pelham Primary School tory as any other newspaper – Black, Reflecting on the event’s success, man Sr. of Miwuk,Movie), Nisenan.

(Outstanding in won New and Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School Awards’ or white-owned. It began with the vi- Lee acknowledged the support from Earlier this year Performance the Observer ‘Hollywood Critics PublishAssociaand graduated from the University of Wit- Series), sion of its founders, Dr. Bill and Kath- leaders in the community, corporate the 2023the National Newspaper Awards’ (TVNewspaper Breakout Star), watersrand in South Africa in 2013, where tion ryn Lee. In 1963, the couple embarked entities, philanthropic organizations, ers TV Association’s of and the the ‘Critics Choice Television Awards’ she studied Physical Theatre and Performon a mission to establish a publication and partners like the Google News Year, with Larry Lee earning Publisher in a Miniseries or Television ing Arts Management. Earlier in 2012, she (Best serving as a voice for the Black com- Initiative. He credited the months of of theActress Year honors.

Movie), all for her role ‘Cora Randall’Dr. in took a summer course at the Stella Adler munity in Sacramento. From its hum- planning, relationship-building, and the event with a stirring performance server’s impact. “The Observer has NNPA President and CEO, the 2021 TV series ‘The Underground RailStudio of Acting in New York City. ble beginnings, the Observer rapidly collaboration with supporters for ex- of a bevy of jazzy tunes, shared his meant so much not only to the city of Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., Washington evolved, becoming one of the fastest- ecuting the celebration in a way that honor in being part of the celebration. Sacramento butCareer Informer Publisher Denise Rolark to the state,” Weber road.’

She won the ‘TV Breakout Star’ Her during acting career began incocktail 2014 when she Barnes, growing publications in the history of paid homage to the Observer’s legacy. “To be called to such an event, I feel said Wave Newspapers CEOaward Plua pre-event party. from the Hollywood Critics Association played a minor role of ‘Nosisa’ in the popuAfrican American journalism.

Attendees echoed Lee’s sentiments, honored because of the history,” he She recognized the publication’s role ria Marshall Jr., and the NNPA’s Let andKnown won themorning ‘Outstanding Performance South African Opera ‘Isibaya’ Larry Lee, the impassioned publish- many of whom expressed how pleased said. McComb emphasized the im- lar It Be show team, inin highlighting theSoap community’s great- TV New Series’ award fromMarshall the Gotham 2015, she played a in er who took over the newspaper after Bill and Kathryn Lee, the late found- portance of having a vision, not just from cluding Producer Greer and ness Mzansi and theMagic. state ofInCalifornia.

‘Kheti’ theall Second his father’s death in 2019, emotionally ers, would have been. “My father a dream, drawing inspiration from the guest digital stars Dawn Montgomery and “The role loveasand trustinwe haveSeason in the Awards.

In 2022,Randie,” Mbedu was nominated the the SABCreally 2 youth series ‘Snake absorbed the significance of the cele- would have said this event was as Observer’s founder, who had a vision of were among for those Observer is drama unmatched,” she “Totally ‘Independent (Best Female bration. “I think the celebration was a good as anything that we’d ever done. leading to this influential institution’s Park.’ representing Spirit the Awards Black Press.

“The stated. in athe Newevening, Scripted set Series), for She her first starring role inthe the preteen Performance wonderful example of how we should He would have been proud,” Larry establishment. celebration … the bar Thegotcelebration included her role ‘Cora Randall’ in the 2021 televidrama television series ‘IS’THUNZI’ from honor an institution as important as Lee stated.

California Secretary of State Shir- sentation of the Observer’s 60th-an- for all of the Black Press,” Dr. Chavis series ‘The Underground Railroad.’

Magic whereLegacy she played ‘Winnie.’ any,” Lee stated. He underscored the Frank McComb, a world-renowned ley Weber, the first African American Mzansi proclaimed. niversary Living Awards to sion international in ‘The Un-- She won the ‘Critics Choice Television power of vividly illustrating the his- soul jazz recording artist who graced to serve in that role, praised the Ob- Her individuals whodebut havewas made signifi derground Railroad’ an American fantasy Awards’ for ‘Best Actress in a Miniseries or historical drama series based on the novel Television Movie’ for her role ‘Cora Ran‘The Underground Railroad’ written by dall’ in ‘The Underground Railroad.’

In her keynote speech at TheWrap’s PowColson Whitehead.

In 2022, she starred in her first film ‘The er Women Summit, Thuso Mbedu tearfully Woman King’ an epic historical drama spoke of how she overcame the loss of her about Agosie, where an entire female war- dear parents, grandmother, and aunt. But rior unit protected the West African King- her role in Amanda Lane’s ‘IS’THUNZI’ dom of Dahomey in the 17 – 19th century. gradually renewed her hope in life. “…my world was that blur, until AmanShe played ‘Nawi’, a zealous recruit in the da Lane happened in 2016. The role that military unit.

In 2017, Mbedu was nominated for the Amanda Lane gave me was the difference ‘DSTV Viewers Choice Awards’ and the between life and death for me. Receiv‘International Emmy Awards for the ‘Best ing that audition brief, I told myself that Performance by an Actress’ for her role I would audition like it was my last audi‘Winnie Bhengu’ in the 2016 -2017 televi- tion. I gave it the last of everything that I had, that at the time I got the callback, I had sion drama series ‘IS’THUNZI.’ In 2018, she won the ‘South African Film nothing left. I secretly made the decision and Television Awards’ for ‘ Best Actress not to do the callback because I had noth– TV Drama’ for her role ‘Winnie Bhengu’ ing left to give. But fortunately, I received in the 2016 -2017 television drama series the callback. So I didn’t do the callback be‘IS’THUNZI.’ She was also nominated for cause the role was mine. I had given up. I the ‘International Emmy Awards for ‘Best was in a very dark place at the time, and the character, the role, the opportunity, was a no for down payment Performance by an Actress’ her role ‘Winnie Bhengu’ in the 0% television drama interest much needed light. And I told myself that I will act as if it was the last character that series ‘IS’THUNZI.’ mortgage more than I will exceeds play. And through a great script and In 2021, she was nominated for thenever an amazing director, I earned two ‘Television Critics Association Award’ 30% of a family's monthly income Interna(Individual Achievement in Drama), the tional Emmy Awards for that role…”

Sacramento Observer’s 60th Anniversary Gala: A Historic Celebration of Black Journalism

1 in 6 U.S. households pay half or more of their income on housing.

Let's do something about it.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Tracy Chapman becomes first Black songwriter to win Song of the Year at Country Music Awards

by Stephen Nartey, Face2FaceAfrica.com

In what appeared to be a crowning moment for the music legend at the Country Music Awards, Tracy Chapman’s timeless 1988 folk ballad “Fast Car” claimed victory after nearly four decades.

The song, brought back to the spotlight by Luke Combs’ popular cover, earned Chapman the prestigious Song of the Year award, while Combs secured Single of the Year honors.

The night celebrated the enduring power of music to bridge generations and genres, showcasing the magic of a classic resonating with a new audience.

Chapman’s win at the Country Music Awards makes her the first black songwriter to clinch the prestigious Song of the Year award, as reported by Rolling Stone Magazine.

Despite her absence from the ceremony at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena,

country and Top 40 Billboard charts after its release earlier in the summer.

This propelled Chapman to make history as the first Black female songwriter to achieve a No. 1 country song.

In reaction to this feat, Chapman expressed gratitude to new fans for embracing “Fast Car” and conveyed happiness for Combs and the song’s continued success in an interview with Billboard.

Combs’ cover of Chapman’s “Fast Car” sparked both celebration and controversy. While many hailed the revival of Chapman’s work, some critics contended that a Black, queer woman might not have enjoyed the same success in country music with the song as Combs did.

The discussion surrounding the cover brought attention to the complexities and challenges faced by artists of different backgrounds in the music landscape.

the 59-year-old expressed gratitude to country music fans and Combs in a statement read on stage by presenter Sara Evans.

“It’s truly an honor for my song to be newly recognized after 35 years of its debut,” Chapman’s statement said.

“Thank you to the CMAs and a special thanks to Luke and all of the fans of ‘Fast Car,” the statement added.

During his acceptance speech for Single of the Year, Combs expressed gratitude to Chapman for writing one of the greatest songs of all time. The 33-year-old singer from North Carolina shared his deep connection to the song and recounted that it has been significant in his life since he was four years old.

He explained that it has been one of his favorite songs since he was a child and was looking for an opportunity to revive the timeless song, according to NBC DFW. Combs’ rendition of “Fast Car” surged to success, climbing both the

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

NOTICE

The West Haven Planning & VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE Zoning Commission

HOME INC,aonPublic behalf of Hearing Columbus House the change New HaventoHousing Authority, will hold on a and text Article 3 of is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develSection 49.1 of the West Haven Regulations on Tuesday, opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apnd Floor, November 28, 2019 the Harriet North Room, 2Monday ply. Pre-applications will be in available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Ju;y City Hall, Main Haven,(approximately CT at 7:00100) PMhave to 25, 2016 and355 ending whenStreet, sufficient West pre-applications been received at the offices HOME INC. Applications will be mailiedSection upon reconsider amending theofregulations to include a new questentitled by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed pre49.4 Active Adult Community.

Town of Bloomfield

Salary Range:

$87,727 to $136,071 Deputy Finance Director/Controller Pre-employment drug testing.

AA/EOE. For Details go to www.bloomfieldct.org

Town of Bloomfield

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Salary Range - $101,455 to $156,599 (expected starting pay maximum is mid-range)

This proposed text change to Table 39.2 of the zoning regulations adds deMarijuana Facilities and está HOME INC, en nombre la Columbus House y de la New(Dispensaries Haven Housing Authority, aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de by un dormitorio este desarrollo Producers) & Cannabis Establishments SpecialenPermit en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. limitaciones de ingresos inubicado the Regional Business District (RB).Se aplican The proposed text máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 change to section 49.1 of the regulations establishes the julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) following requirements: en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse 49.1.C: Marijuana Dispensaries, Production a las•oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 .

Facilities, and Cannabis Establishments shall be permitted in the Regional Business District (RB) subject to a Special Permit and Site Plan Review. Presently the use is limited to the Light NEWManufacturing HAVEN Zone (LM).

242-258 Fairmont Ave

•

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 to BA,exclude 3BR, 1Cannabis level , 1BA 49.1.D.2. is amended

All new apartments, carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 Retailer fromnew thisappliances, section new of the regulation. highways, near bus stop & shopping center • Pet Section is added to the under 40lb 49.1.D.2.1 allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

regulation to allow a Cannabis Retailer not less than 250is pleased feet tofrom residentially zoned CT. Unified Deacon’s Association offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates land as defined in in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster

•

Section 49.1.D.5 of the zoning regulations is amended by adding section 49.1.D.2.1 in calculating distance as required by the regulation.

St. New Haven, CT

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm from on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, ing applications qualified candidates to participate in the Civil Service ExSeymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at theof amination for Accountant. A Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting plus 2 years SmithfieldisGardens experience required.Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Accountant I: $71,503/year. The Town of East Haven is currently acceptCandidates bilingual in Spanish are encouraged to apply. The town offers an excellent benefi t package.

Applications participate in theOffice examination are A pre-bid conference will be held at the to Housing Authority 28 Smith available at The Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven CT or online Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016. at http://www.townofeasthavenct.org/civiltest.shtml. The deadline for submission is November 22, 2023. The Town of East Haven is committed to building a Bidding documents are availableMinorities, from the Seymour Authority Ofworkforce of diverse individuals.

Females, Housing Handicapped and Veterfice, Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579. ans are28 encouraged to apply.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

The Hamden Public School System (HPS) located in Hamden, Connecticut seeks Connecticut certified teachers who have a passion for working in diverse and dynamic school settings. The ideal candidate has experience working in culturally, socioeconomically, and racially diverse learning environments.

HPS has approximately 5,600 students attending 8 elementary schools, 1 middle School, 1 high school, and 1 secondary alternative program (HCLC). Our demographics are as follows: 32% Black/African-American students; 25% White students; 28% Hispanic (Latinx) students; 7% Asian students; 7% Two or more races; and less than 1% Native American and Pacific Islander students.

We are seeking candidates for multiple positions, including but not limited to:

applications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

AMENDMENT TO TABLE 39.2 & ARTICLE 3SECTION 49.1 ENTITLED MARIJUANA NOTICIA FACILITIES

HAMDEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

• Special Education (pre-K thru 12) • World Language • Social Work • Head Girls Gymnastics Coach • Head Boys Lacrosse Coach • Custodial • School Nurse

Finance Director Fully Benefited – 35 hours weekly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website – www.bloomfieldct.org

Portland Police Officer full-time Go to www.portlandct.org for details

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

While we are seeking candidates for these positions specifically, we encourage holders of certificates in other areas to apply as well. It is also important to note here that the Hamden Board of Education is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse teaching staff.

Interested candidates can access Hamden.org, click on the Personnel tab, and then click on Online Applications. Anyone seeking additional information can contact Hamden Public Schools Assistant Superintendents, Erin Bailey (Elementary) at ebailey@ hamden.org or Linda Tran (Secondary) at ltran@hamden.org. For coaching positions, please contact Director of Athletics, Tom Dyer at tdyer@hamden.org.

Invitation to Bid: It is the policy of Hamden Public Schools that no person shall be excluded from, de2nd Notice

nied the benefits of, or otherwise discriminated against under any program including

Old Saybrook, CT APPLY NOW! (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

employment, because of race, color, religious creed, sex, age national origin, ancestry, SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE marital status, sexual orientation, past or present history of mental disorder, learning disability or physical disability.

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Invitation for Bids Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, State of Connecticut Unarmed Security Services Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

Office of Policy This contract subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements. andisManagement

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for Services of a firm to provide Unarmed Security Services. A complete copy of the requirement may be The State of Connecticut, Bid Extended, Due Date: Augustfrom 5, 2016 obtained Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://neOffice of Policy and Management Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 whavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on is recruiting for an Information

Technology Technician hour).

Monday, November 6, 2023, at 3:00PM. Project(40documents available via ftp link below: Further information regarding http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

The Town of East Haven

the duties, eligibility is currently accepting applications from qualified requirements and application Faxinstructions or Email Questions & Bids to:at: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 candidatesdawnlang@haynesconstruction.com for the position of Mechanic. The starting salary is $55,393 per year and are available

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran,the S/W/MBE Sectionan3 Certified Businesses town &offers excellent benefit package. Only candidates with at least 6 years of

https://www.jobapscloud.com/ Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 experience in motor-mechanic work, a High School Diploma or GED supplemented by CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?b=&R1= trade school training and a CDL, class 2 will be considered. Applications are available 230927&R2=7602FR&R3=001 AA/EEO EMPLOYER The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

18

online at http://www.townofeasthavenct.org/civiltest.shtml or the Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven CT. The deadline for submission is November 22, 2023.

The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals.

Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 2023 - November 21, 2023 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27,15, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Construction

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valCT We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits id drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621Contact: Tom Dunay VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE 1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Phone: 860- 243-2300 HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, Email: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom this develAffiatrmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to applyapartments Drug Free Workforce opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven.

Maximum income limitations apAffirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:will be mailied upon rebeen received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications Reclaimer and Milling with current quest byOperators calling HOME INC atOperators 203-562-4663 duringlicensing those hours. Completed preand clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the NorthLargeStreet, CT Fence applications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Third Company looking for an individual for our east & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits PVC Fence Production Shop. Experience preferred but will Floor, New Haven, CT 06510. train the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com measure. Use of CNC Router machine a plus but not required, will train the right person. This is an in-shop production poWomen & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and AffirmativeMACRI Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer VALENTINA VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDESsition.

DISPONIBLES more. Must have a valid CT driver’s license & be able to obtain a Drivers Medical HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está Card. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com.

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipaceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of AA/EOE-MF ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the máximos.

Las We pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m.tscomenzando Martes 25 Northeast & NY. offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefi Full Time julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100)Administrative assistant position en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición for a steel & misc metals fabrication shop who will oversee the llamandoEmail: a HOMEdana.briere@garrityasphalt.com INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirseof clerical duties such as answering phones, acdaily operations Women & Minority encouraged to apply a las oficinas de HOMEApplicants INC en 171are Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 .purchase orders/invoicing and certified payroll. counts payable Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer Email resumes to jillherbert@gwfabrication.com

NOTICE

Construction

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V

Drug Free Workforce

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

PVC FENCE PRODUCTION

NOTICIA

Invitation for Bids Unarmed Security Services Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for Services of a firm to provide Unarmed Security Services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Union Company seeks:

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

LEGAL NOTICE

NEW HAVEN

Request for Proposals (RFP) for Services

242-258 Fairmont Ave 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management, is seeking proposals to provide certain services related to a Study of Connecticut’s existing employee assistance programs for people with intellectual or developmental disability or other disabilities.

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 The intent of the request is to identify or firms with the necessary highways, near bus individuals stop & shopping center expertise to provide a report and workforce plan within a stated timeframe.

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

The RFP is available online at: https://portal.ct.gov/DAS/CTSource/ BidBoard and https://portal.ct.gov/OPM/Root/RFP/Request-ForProposals or from Allison Blancato, Office of Policy and Management, CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Health and Human Services Division, 450 Capitol Ave., MS#55SEC, Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates Hartford, Connecticut 06106-1379.

OPM.IDDEmployment@ in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is E-mail: $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:30ct.gov.

Telephone (860)418-6400. for response submission is 3:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S.,Deadline B.S. 5:00 P.M., December 22, 2023.

(203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

MINORITY CONTRACTOR OPPORTUNITY – Chrysalis Townhouses, New Britain, CT SOLICITATION OF SBE/MBE CONTRACTORS: Enterprise Builders, Inc., an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, seeks certified SBE/ Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour MBE Subcontractors and/or suppliers and local business enterprises to bid apuntil 3:00 pm onofTuesday, August 2, 2016 atforitsthe office at 28 Smith Street, plicable sections work/equipment/supplies following construction Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the project: Chrysalis Townhouses: This project consists of new construction of Living Smithsf.Street Seymour.

28Smithfield townhouseGardens units in Assisted New Britain CTFacility, totaling 26 32,416 Bid Date and Time: is November 30, 2023 at 3:00PM. Please email proposals to bids@enterbuilders.com.

Electronic Plans and can beAuthority obtained Office at no charge by A pre-bid conference will bespecifi held atcations the Housing 28 Smith contacting the Estimating Department at Enterprise Builders at (860) 466-5188 Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016. or by email to bids@enterbuilders.com. Project is Tax Exempt and Prevailing Wage Rates DO NOT apply. This project is subject to state set-aside and contract Bidding documents are available from thethe Seymour Housing Ofcompliance requirements.

EBI encourages participation of Authority certified SBE/ fice,contractors.

28 Smith Street, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

MBE EBI isSeymour, an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

Monday, November 6, 2023, at 3:00PM.

The Town of East Haven is currently accepting applications from qualified

candidates for the position of Mechanic. The starting salary is $55,393 per year and the town offers an excellent benefit package. Only candidates with at least 6 years of experience in motor-mechanic work, a High School Diploma or GED supplemented by trade school training and a CDL, class 2 will be considered. Applications are available online at http://www.townofeasthavenct.org/civiltest.shtml or the Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven CT. The deadline for submission is November 22, 2023.

The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals.

Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management Invitation to Bid:

THE GLENDOWER GROUP, INC.

nd

2 Notice

The State of Connecticut, Office of Request for Proposals Policy and Management is recruiting for an OPM Assistant Division LIHTC Equity Investor/Limited Partner for Eastview Terrace Director in the Office of Finance.Old Saybrook, CT

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Phase I Rehabilitation Project

Further information regarding (4 Buildings, 17 Units) the duties,Tax eligibility Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project requirements and application The Glendower Group, Inc. is currently seeking proposals for a qualified Low- Income instructions are available at: Housing Tax Credit Equity Investor/Limited Partners. A complete copy of the requirement

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work,Vendor Cast- Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing. https://www.jobapscloud.com/ may be obtained from Glendower’s CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?b=&R1= beginning on in-place Concrete, Asphaltcobblestonesystems.com/gateway Shingles, Vinyl Siding, 230908&R2=0104MP&R3=001 Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, The State of Connecticut is an equal Wednesday, November 15, 2023, at 3:00PM. opportunity/affirmative action employer and Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. strongly encourages the applications of women, This minorities, contractand is persons subjectwithtodisabilities. state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

Executive Secretary

Bid Extended, Due Date: TheAugust Town5,of2016 Wallingford is seeking highly qualified and experienced Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 QSR STEEL applicants for the position of Executive Secretary. Must have 6 years’ Project documents available via ftp linkinbelow: experience responsible office work, some of which must have been CORPORATION http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage in a supervisory capacity, or an equivalent combination of experience

APPLY NOW!

and college-level training. Pay rate $28.75 to $34.86 per hour plus an

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 excellentdawnlang@haynesconstruction.com benefit package. Application forms may be obtained at the DeHCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses partment of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders AA/EEO EMPLOYER Top pay for top performers. Health from the Department of Human Resources or may be downloaded from Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Town of Wallingford Department of Human Resources Web Page and Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

19

emailed to wlfdhr@wallingfordct.gov. Phone: (203)-294-2080. Fax (203)-294-2084. The closing date will be November 27, 2023. EOE

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 2023 - November 21, 2023 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 15, 2016 - August 02, 2016

AVISO DE AUDIÊNCIA PÚBLICA PARA

THE ELM CITYCOMMUNITIES, AUTORIDADE DE VIVIENDA DE NEWHAVEN (ECC/HANH) MUDANZA PARA O TRABALJO (MTW) RELATÓRIO ANUAL DE 2023

NOTICE

La Sección II y la Sección VII del Acuerdo de Mudarse al Trabajo de la Autoridad VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE {el "Acuerdo") requieren que antes de que la Agencia pueda presentar su Plan Anual Aprobado de Mudarse al Trabajo e informar al Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo HOMEdeINC, on behalf of "HUD") Columbus and theuna New Haven Housing Urbano los EE. UU. (el se House debe realizar audiencia pública, Authority, considerar accepting pre-applications studio and one-bedroom apartments at this devellosiscomentarios del público sobreforlas enmiendas propuestas, obtener la aprobación de la opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven.

Maximum income limitations apJunta de Comisionados y presentar las enmiendas al HUD.

ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y

2016deand ending when sufficient have El 25, período comentarios de treinta (30) pre-applications días comienza el (approximately Miércoles, 1 de 100) Noviembre at the of Moving HOME INC. Applications will el beaño mailied delbeen 2023received y las copias deloffices Informe to Work (MTW) para fiscalupon 2023reesquest by callingenHOME during those hours. Completed pretarán disponibles el sitioINC webatde203-562-4663 la agencia www.elmcitycommunities.org o a través deapplications Twitter, www.twitter. com/ECCommunities o aoffices través at de171 Facebook must be returned to HOME INC’s Orangewww.facebook.

Street, Third com/ElmCityCommunities.

Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

Le invitamos a enviar comentarios por escrito dirigidos a: ECC/HANH, Moving To Work FY2023 Annual Report, a la atención de: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511 o por correo electrónico a: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.

NOTICIA

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

De conformidad con dichas Secciones II y VII, una audiencia pública donde se aceptarán y registrarán públicos está programada Martes 28 de Noviembre del HOME INC,comentarios en nombre de la Columbus House y de lapara NewelHaven Housing Authority, está 2023 a las 3:00 p.m. a través de RingCentral: https://v.ringcentral.com/join/975943490? aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo pw=2e34ff6769797e68e96a95bb953d0d81 ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos

máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 ID de reunión: 975943490 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) Contraseña: yozWY5m3ib en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse O marcar: a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Estados Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 .

267-930-4000 Unidos Clave de Acceso / ID de Reunión: 975943490 Contraseña de acceso telefónico: 9699956342

Cualquier persona que requiera una Adaptación Razonable para participar en la audiencia puede llamar al Gerente de Adaptación Razonable (203) 498-8800, ext. 1507 o al Número TDD (203) 497-8434.

NEW HAVEN

242-258 Fairmont Ave 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

LAROSA GROUPS IS GROWING CT. UnifiedBuilding Deacon’s Association pleased to a Deacon’s LaRosa Groupis LLC, a offer General Contractor is currently looking Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to Church’s needs. The cost is $125.

Classes startto Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:30totheadd the Ministry following full-time positions our Team: 3:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host, General General Bishop ElijahOffi Davis,ce D.D.Administrator Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT Assistant Project Manager/Project Engineer Superintendent

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

LaRosa Earth Group LLC, a Site/Excavation Company is currently looking to add the following full-time positions to our Team: Sealed bids are invitedHeavy by theEquipment Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour Operators until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Skilled Laborers Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Please submit resumes to HR@LAROSABG.COM or stop by our main office to fill out an application: 163 Research Parkway Meriden, CT. A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Salary will be commensurate experienceJuly and 20, best2016. fit for the posiStreet Seymour, CT at 10:00 am,with on Wednesday, tions. Health plan; 401K; company-paid holidays in addition to paid Bidding documents are availabletime fromoff. the Seymour Housing Authority OfLaRosa is anSeymour, Affirmative Equal Opportunity Employer fice, 28 Groups Smith Street, CT Action/ 06483 (203) 888-4579. who values diversity and encourages all qualified applicants to apply.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

APPLY NOW!

THE ELM CITYCOMMUNITIES, HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEW HAVEN (ECC/HANH) MOVING TO WORK (MTW) FY2023 ANNUAL REPORT

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders

Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

Section II and Section VII of the Authority's Moving to Work Agreement {the "Agreement") requires that before the Agency can file its Approved Annual Moving to Work Plan and Report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (the "HUD") that it must conduct a public hearing, consider comments from the public on the proposed amendments, obtain approval from the Board of Commissioners, and submit the amendments to HUD. The thirty (30) days comment period begins on Wednesday, November 1, 2023 and copies of the Moving to Work (MTW) FY2023 Report, will be made available on the agency website www.elmcitycommunities.org or via Twitter, www.twitter.com/ECCommunities or via Facebook www.facebook.com/ElmCityCommunities.

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Principal Labor Relations Specialist.

You are invited to provide written comments addressed to: ECC/HANH, Moving To Work FY2023 Annual Report, Attn: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511 or via email to: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.

Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at:

Pursuant to said Sections II and VII), a public hearing where public comments will be accepted and recorded is scheduled for Tuesday, November 28, 2023 at 3:00pm via RingCentral: https://v.ringcentral.com/join/975943490?pw=2e34ff6769797e68e9 6a95bb953d0d81

https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?b=&R1= 230417&R2=6342MP&R3=001

Meeting ID: 975943490 Password: yozWY5m3ib

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Or dial: 267-930-4000 United States Access Code / Meeting ID: 975943490 Dial-in password: 9699956342

WANTED

Any individual requiring a Reasonable Accommodation to participate in the hearing may call the Reasonable Accommodation Manager (203) 498-8800, ext. 1507 or at the TDD Number (203) 497-8434.

to Bid: TRUCK DRIVERInvitation 2 Notice nd

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE Truck Driver with clean

CDL license(4 Buildings, 17 Units) Old Saybrook, CT

LEGAL NOTICE

Request for Proposals (RFP) for Services

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management, is seeking

to Project provide services related to the statutory definition associated with Tax Exempt & Not Prevailingproposals Wage Rate intellectual disability and developmental disabilities and the state’s evaluation of its level of need tool.

Please send resume to Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, CastNew Construction, Wood Framed, The intent of the request is to identify individuals or firms with the necessary attielordan@gmail.com in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Siding, consulting services and the ability to draft a statutorily expertiseVinyl to provide

PJF Construction Corporation mandated report within a stated timeframe.

Flooring, Painting, DivisionAA/EOE 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework,

The RFP available online at: https://portal.ct.gov/DAS/CTSource/BidBoard Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fireis Protection. and https://portal.ct.gov/OPM/Root/RFP/Request-For-Proposals or from This contract is subject to state set-aside andAlexis contract compliance requirements.

Aronne, Office of Policy and Management, Health and Human Services

POLICE OFFICER

Policy and Planning

Division, 450 Capitol Ave., MS# 55SEC, Hartford, Con-

E-mail: OPM.LONDefinitionStudy@ct.gov. Telephone Bid Extended, Due Date:necticut August 06106-1379.

5, 2016 (860) 418-6223. Deadline for response submission is 5:00 P.M., December Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 13, 2023.

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

City of Bristol

$73,220 - $89,002/yr.

Listing: Mechanic

Fax or Email Questionstesting, & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com Required HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Immediate opening general info, and apply Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 for a full time mechanic; maintenance to be done on commercial diesel trucks and trailers. Send resume to: AA/EEO EMPLOYER online: www.bristolct.gov

DEADLINE: 12-04-23 20

HR Manager, P. O. Box 388, Guilford, CT 06437 or email hrdept@eastriverenergy.com ********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Courtney B. Vance Gets Real About Black Men’s Mental Health In The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power, a book Vance wrote with Dr. Robin L. Smith, the duo share why our brothers must shed their shame and embrace vulnerability to find healing.

it is time to reconsider our opinions about it, especially because it can be an essential element in helping Black boys and men to feel worthy and achieve wholeness. Dr. Smith says, “Therapy is a safe place to overhear the inner conversations you have with yourself every day.”

Vance says his therapist asked him, “Are you willing to sit in the mud until the water becomes clear?” In other words, the work Black men must do to heal will neither be quick nor pretty, but the clarity they get will be worth it.

To learn more, check out Courtney B. Vance and Dr. Smith in conversation with Tony Cornelius at the session, The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power, at our Fall Summit in Los Angeles.

Courtney B. Vance and Dr. Smith’s book, The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power is out now.

Actor Courtney B. Vance knew many Black men and boys were silently living in crisis when it came to their mental health. He was among them. When he lost his father to suicide three decades ago, his mother urged Vance to find a therapist. The two-time Emmy winner dug deep to do the work on himself. But the recent loss of his godson, who also succumbed to suicide at 23, made the actor see there was an urgent need to discuss Black men’s pain. He decided to share his story and team up with noted psychologist Dr. Robin L. Smith to write a book. It provides a framework for Black men and those of us who love them, to acknowledge their pain and take the courageous steps that lead to healing. Among the things that needs reexamination is our community’s reaction to the tears of Black men and boys. We need to break the habit of criticizing vulnerability and emotional expression when it comes from them.

While seeking therapy is met with skepticism by some members of our community,

‘Golden Bachelor’ contestant eliminated

shortly after revealing she skipped daughter’s wedding to be on show Dollita Okine,

Face2FaceAfrica.com 75-year-old retired executive assistant Sandra Mason, who made an appearance on ABC’s reality dating series The Golden Bachelor, revealed that she did so at the expense of her daughter’s wedding.

The show, a spin-off of The Bachelor, stars a 72-year-old widower who is looking for love again, as well as

older ladies competing for love. Mason clarified that she didn’t choose to skip her daughter’s wedding.

She said to People, “My son-in-law said, ‘Mom, our ceremony is eight minutes. Our marriage is a lifetime.’

He said, ‘You go. Go.’ And of course, my daughter said, ‘Mom, I’ve got my guy. You go get yours. So they practically shoved me out and said, ‘You got to do this.’”

Honoring Our Promise to Our Black Veterans By: Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn

The original government-issued posters publicizing the G.I. Bill of 1944 were designed to inspire. Oversized red and white letters urged, “Veterans — prepare for your future through EDUCATIONAL TRAINING. Consult your nearest Office of the VETERANS ADMINISTRATION.” Another read, “VETERANS — if buying a farm, home, or business, learn about GUARANTEED LOANS.” A third showed a young man with his hand on his chin, deep in thought, with the following text above: “Shall I go back to school?”

What’s notable about these posters is that every person pictured is white. These posters sent a message to Black veterans that they need not apply — that these life-changing programs were not meant for them. This message was reinforced by the blatant discrimination perpetrated by Veterans Affairs (VA) offices around the country and the abysmal benefits provided to veterans of color. In 1947, only two of more than 3,200 home loans administered by the VA in Mississippi cities went to Black borrowers. Similarly, less than 1% of VA mortgages went to Black borrowers in New York and New Jersey suburbs.

These disparities in homeownership opportunities have grown with time. The Consumer Federation of America estimates that homeownership rates for white and Black Americans stood at 74.50% and 44.10% respectively in 2020, and 65% and 38% in 1960. This homeownership disparity helps explain the difference in net worth for white families ($171,000) compared to that of Black families ($17,150). After signing the G.I. Bill into law in June 1944, President Truman remarked that it would give “emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the Ameri-

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can people do not intend to let them down.”

Nearly 80 years later, I’ve teamed up with Congressman Seth Moulton (MA-06) and U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) to ensure President Truman’s words ring true. We have reintroduced Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. and Sgt. Joseph H. Maddox G.I. Bill Restoration Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. It would provide critical housing and education benefits to Black World War II veterans and their descendants, honoring our long overdue promise to the nation’s heroes. It would also require that the Government Accountability Office establish a panel of independent experts to assess inequities in how benefits are distributed to

minority and female service members.

The bill’s name pays homage to two admirable and unsung World War II veterans.

In February 1946, decorated World War II veteran Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. was traveling home on a Greyhound bus to Winnsboro, South Carolina when a local police chief forcibly removed him from the bus.

Still in his uniform after being honorably discharged, the officer beat him mercilessly. Woodard was cruelly thrown in jail rather than given the necessary medical treatment, leading to his blindness. The police chief was ultimately acquitted of the crime by an all-white jury. President Truman was so moved by Sgt. Woodard’s horrific abuse that he signed an Executive Order integrating the armed services.

Sgt. Joseph Maddox, another World War II veteran, applied and was accepted to a master’s degree program at Harvard University. His local Veterans Affairs office denied him the tuition assistance he was rightfully due under the G.I. Bill to “avoid setting a precedent.” After seeking assistance from the NAACP, the VA in Washington, D.C., ultimately promised to get Sgt. Maddox the educational benefits he deserved.

These are just two of the countless servicemembers who were treated unfairly after sacrificing on behalf of their country.

Black soldiers returning home from World War II found themselves facing the same socioeconomic and racial discrimination they had faced before. Instead of being welcomed with open arms, they struggled to find jobs, get educated, and purchase homes. We cannot undo the injustices of our past. But we can begin to restore the possibility of full economic mobility for those that the original G.I. Bill left behind.

The G.I. Bill Restoration Act would bring us one step closer to that goal.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. Becomes First Divine Nine Sorority to Raise $1 Million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. - a historically Black sorority - has completed a historic pledge made in 2021 to raise $1 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®. This achievement comes days before the international collegiate and nonprofit community service organization’s 101st anniversary, marking over a century of commitment to helping those in need.

At the time of the original announcement, Sigma Gamma Rho had already raised nearly $500,000 for St. Jude. As part of the push to reach $1 million, Sigma Gamma Rho pledged a three-year sponsorship for the annual St. Jude Walk/Run, held during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month each September.

Since then, Sigma Gamma Rho has reached its goal in large part through its participation in the St. Jude Walk/ Run. In 2023, the organization entered more than 200 Walk/Run teams in cities across the United States, helping it cross the fundraising finish line this year.

Rasheeda S. Liberty, International Grand Basileus of Sigma Gamma Rho stated, “Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated is grateful for the opportunity to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s work to find cures and help save the lives of children all over the world. I am proud of the mobilization of our global membership to reach this $1,000,000 milestone, and to have done so just prior to our 101st Founders’ Day. This accomplishment aligns with our sorority’s motto, “Greater Service, Greater Progress”.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with St. Jude in the years to come.”

vice shown by Sigma Gamma Rho,” said Richard C. Shadyac Jr., President and CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“This is a milestone accomplishment

by Sigma Gamma Rho and its members all over the world that will help St. Jude continue making progress in improving survival rates for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.”

Join Sigma Gamma Rho in helping St. Jude accelerate research and treatment for children around the world with cancer, sickle cell and other diseases.

About Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated

Citizens Trust Bank team. Photo: Citizens Trust Bank

Support from organizations like Sigma Gamma Rho helps ensure that families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or

food – so they can focus on helping their child live.

“We’re so grateful for and honored by the incredible heart and dedicated ser-

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was founded on November 12, 1922 on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis by Seven African-American Women Educators. Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated has welcomed more than 100,000 collegiate and professional women from every profession. The sorority has more than 500 chapters in the United States, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Ghana, Germany, Japan, South Korea, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United Arab Emirates. The organization also has active affiliate groups devoted to empowering women at different stages in life. The Rhoer Club Affiliates (teenage girls) and Philos Affiliates (friends of the sorority) also assist chapters with various service efforts and programs.

Sigma Gamma Rho’s commitment to service is expressed in its slogan, “Greater Service, Greater Progress.”

The sorority has a proud history of providing positive and proactive community outreach nationally and internationally. The programs, partnerships, and sponsorships represent Sigma Gamma Rho’s commitment to promoting the greater good in education, service, and leadership development.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Its purpose is clear: Finding cures. Saving children.® It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. When St. Jude opened in 1962, childhood cancer was largely considered incurable.

Since then, St. Jude has helped push the overall survival rate from 20% to more than 80%, and it won't stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude shares the breakthroughs it makes to help doctors and researchers at local hospitals and cancer centers around the world improve the quality of treatment and care for even more children.

Because of generous donors, families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food, so they can focus on helping their child live. Visit St. Jude Inspire to discover powerful St. Jude stories of hope, strength, love and kindness. Support the St. Jude mission by donating at stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook, following St. Jude on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, and subscribing to its YouTube channel.

All the Black-owned banks in America and why you should support them by Abu Mubarik, Face2FaceAfrica.com

terparts, even if they qualify, according to Forbes. The practice has contributed to disparities in wealth between Black and white households.

There are 5,400 insured financial institutions in the United States; only 23 are blackowned as of 2018. According to Forbes, the number of black-owned banks has declined by more than 50 percent from 2001 to 2018. The 2008 financial crisis exacerbated the situation.

Not only have black-owned banks declined, but they also have fewer assets at their disposal than some of the major players in the sector. For instance, OneUnited, the largest black-owned bank in the U.S., manages assets worth $625 million while Bank of America manages nearly $2.5 trillion. \

In the last decade, black entrepreneurship has seen tremendous growth in every sector of the economy. From sports to banking to skincare, black entrepreneurship has shown no sign of slowing down.

One of the areas that is attracting the attention of Black business people is the banking and the fintech space. Until recently, there were a handful of black-owned banks operating in America, according to Forbes. These banks emerged to combat discriminatory practices against Blacks who wanted loans. These banks are now providing economic security for disenfranchised Black communities that have long been underserved by financial institutions.

Black people are two times more likely to be denied credit than their white coun-

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

Where innovative heart research becomes personalized heart care.

Our Heart and Vascular Center leads the region in advancing cardiovascular care. With the brightest physicians, more than 150 research scientists and over 200 clinical trials, our groundbreaking treatments are improving lives today and ensuring better outcomes tomorrow.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 15, 2023 - November 21, 2023

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