At year’s end Hizzoner looks back, ahead
Last month Democrat John DeStefano Jr. was re-elected to a ninth term as New Haven’s mayor, with about 70 percent of the vote. The 54-year-old lifelong New Havener has had an eventful 2009, including embarking on a bold (opponents would say overdue) school-reform initiative and an armistice with East Haven over future development of Tweed-New Haven Airport. The mayor spoke with BNH on November 30.
What is the most significant accomplishment of your administration in 2009?
What will prove to be the most significant imitative is school change.
What motivated you to push this now?
A combination of factors — the [academic improvement] of the school district to the point where it had seen steady growth, but not exponential growth. The review of the district commissioned by the state had much to say about the organization of the district and that it was ready for exponential change. Finally the election of a President and an education secretary [Arne Duncan] who I believe provided a vehicle to motivate change.
What are you hoping for from Washington to help New Haven schools? Is it about money, or is a feeling of doing things differently?
Certainly funding is important, and we hope to receive money for our school change initiative. The larger issue is that besides the expectation for improved academic performance, which was an expectation of the Bush administration, this administration has engaged many of the school constituencies that need to be part of the change.
Did that help persuade the teachers union to be more flexible with the new contract, because they’re more trusting of the Obama administration?
The New Haven Federation of Teachers decided to be in the forefront of school change. They hadn’t been before. The timing was right [now]. In fairness [to the union] we hadn’t engaged them in the same way previously.
In 2009 we’re still seeing construction activity downtown. Where do we go from here?
The low occupancy rate in commercial buildings and the high occupancy rate in residential [real estate] downtown is a reflection of New Haven having made a decision over the last number of years to niche itself. [We’re seeing strength] not just downtown, but in Science Park, which has seen an impressive number of occupancies and growth. The move of Covidien to centralize its headquarters in New Haven and take up new occupancy in the city reflects the sense of New Haven as a successful cluster of knowledge-based companies. At its core is the commitment of [Yale] to grow and the city to support that growth. Much of that has expressed itself not only in institutional occupancy, but commercial occupancy around Smilow [Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven], at Science Park and Long Wharf. The second thing that has contributed mightily in the last year is the drop in crime and the successful [enhancement] of downtown quality of life, through our marketing program and other efforts that have made New Haven a more attractive location to live and work.
There were new police initiatives this year, including more aggressive enforcement in the neighborhoods.
The department focused heavily on narcotics enforcement, which is the root of much violent activity in the inner city. It focused heavily on engagement of uncivil behavior such as aggressive traffic, prostitution and street crime activity. Also engagement around youth: Students graduating from high school being offered the opportunity of a summer jobs. Our street outreach program has been an interesting program to engage a problem population.
What does the state’s budget meltdown portend for the city’s fiscal health going forward?
City finances are challenged right now in terms of revenues and expenses. We still run with the only tax we can deploy — the property tax — and [have] limited ability to exercise it because of the high amount of tax-exempt property in the city. Additionally, in compensation [for tax-exempt property] we receive a significant amount of state aid, but reductions in state aid fall disproportionately on places like New Haven. On the expenditure side, the size of our workforce is less of an issue as it has been reduced considerably over the last ten years, but the cost of the workforce [to be an issue]. We are locked in to what may be unsustainable health and pension benefits that are going to require some revision to provide those benefits in the future. Right now we don’t have a framework under state statute to address this.
Sometimes when New Haven improves management of its own affairs, it brings on less commitment of funds from the state.
We’re probably not different that the average family: You’re effected by things outside your control — the strength of your employer, the cost of college, lots of things. [We have] less of an antagonistic relationship with the state [now than before]. I see it more as being able to identify opportunities for collaboration with the state, the region and federal government where it makes sense to grow the New Haven economy that will contribute to the well being of the entire state.
There are two ways to measure where income tax revenues from the state are derived. Most of the time it will be calculated by where the return is filed from, the place of residence. But most of it isn’t earned in wealthy bedroom communities but in cores, some of which happen to be out of state, as in New York State, but much of it is places like Hartford and New Haven. Our jobs as elected officials but also in the private sector, institutional and non-profit leadership is to find sweet spots of cooperation to [drive] job creation and wealth creation.
What should we as a state being doing to resuscitate job growth?
I’m not a strong believe in trying to pick winners and losers in the marketplace — for example, the film industry [tax credit]. We should invest in core strategies and governmental functions like transportation assets, preparation of young people for the workforce. In the case of life sciences and communications technology, and the ‘hard’ sciences around fuel cells and other core places where Connecticut is advantaged, we ought to promote them. It’s also a matter of promoting smart land use, develop along transportation corridors, don’t turn greenfields into strip centers. Fred Carstensen’s [of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at UConn] report from November shows that among the 50 states, we’ve had the lowest job growth in the nation and a shift in the employment base from high-wage jobs to lower-wage service and governmental jobs. So it’s not just that we’re not growing jobs, but we’re trading down the quality of the jobs.
Do you attribute New Haven’s relative success weathering the recession to Yale’s greater civic engagement, or is it more our location that is the responsible?
Yes and yes. It’s those two things, and its many more things. [It’s] having smart investments in public safety and a school district that is attractive enough that we get students coming here from 30 communities every day. It is a whole host of quality-of-life choices that have been made. It’s [the November promotion] Restaurant Week, not to be glib. It is all those things.
With the announcement by Gov. Jodi Rell that she won’t run for re-election, have you considered running again?
I have no interest in running for governor in 2010. I had a wonderful opportunity to do that in 2005-06; it was a terrific experience. Right now this is the place I’m excited to be and where I can be part of making a difference — not just in New Haven but the rest of the state.
What are your most immediate priorities for 2010?
I hope we take six to eight schools out of 47 schools and move them to a changed structure. A continued reduction in violence. While there’s been a decline in foreclosures, I think it’s largely artificial as a result of slowdown by the banks as a policy decision. I hope we continue to see strengthening in the housing market. In terms of projects, we’ll see continued growth at Tweed. We have a great platform to chase air service with the construction of the runway safety zone and the agreement we’ve reached with East Haven on everything from tree cutting to navigational equipment.
A little over a year ago Yale funded the creation of a New Haven Economic Development Corp. Have we seen any output yet?
It’s good. In Fair Haven the EDC saw passage of a merchant association and a special services district. Is it doing some planning in the medical district. They initiated a business contact program, which has begun targeting outreach. It’s where it should be. Over time it will be a real player in the economy of New Haven and the region.
Are there opportunities for the city to become more ‘green’ in the current economic environment?
It is something the city can do. In a lot of the fossil fuel consumption we procure, we’ve taken good steps. In waste stream we’ll see dramatic improvements in 2010 as the city revamps its entire curbside recycling program that will be meaningful and significant. We can work with responsible third parties as we just did with PSEG on a peak power plant. We will act responsibly to see that there is a reliable source of energy but that it is done so that it reduces emissions. I think there will be lots of opportunity to promote cleaner air and cleaner water and less use of carbon-based energy. It’s a matter of all of us in daily lives and workplace and habits. There are plenty of rational opportunities we can make today that will pay back to us over the next several years and they are good investments to make. Much the way some people are saying, ‘Why are you still building schools in a difficult financial environment?’ Frankly, I’ve never experienced as competitive a construction market as we have now. It’s actually a good time to build vertical. Anyone purchasing construction right now is seeing great value. Slowing down our purchase of construction [services] you also cut payrolls — and arguably this is a time you want to be supporting payrolls.
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