New Haven needs a new approach

Rendezvous With Destiny
    By Daniel Waldman

New Haven needs a new mayor. While we're at it, New Haven needs a new Board of Aldermen as well. And I don't just mean new people. I mean new people from a different political party. It doesn't really matter which party--Republican, Libertarian, Green, whatever--just as long as it isn't the Democrats. It's time for a change. The Democrats have controlled New Haven since 1953, the year when the Republican mayor was unseated by a Democrat. The Board of Aldermen had already fallen to the Democrats a year earlier. Since then nothing has changed, all of the city's leaders have hailed from the Democratic party.

Regardless of your political affiliation, you must recognize the obvious reasons against one-party rule. Left unchallenged in elections, candidates are no longer forced to listen to their constituents or work on improvement of the city. No city can thrive under such conditions, and this is precisely what has happened here. Such one-party domination has led to a decline in this city which is virtually unmatched. Recurring crime and economic problems have left New Haven behind the rest of the nation.

Although Mayor John DeStefano insists that crime is dropping, it is not dropping enough. Last year, when Money magazine ranked 202 cities with populations exceeding 100,000, New Haven placed 182nd in overall safety. Crime may be declining in New Haven, but it is also falling almost everywhere in this country, and at much faster rates. While cities such as New York have embraced tough new methods for fighting crime, New Haven is still stuck in the 1960s with its method of "community policing." Instead of cracking down on crime, New Haven police officers are supposed to get to know the neighborhood and its residents. Last year, Police Chief Nicholas Pastore took this "community policing&quo t; to the next level, getting so close to the criminals that he impregnated a convicted prostitute. Oops! While I certainly admire the vigor with which the former top cop approached his job, I think it's time that New Haven adopted the tough, no-nonsense crime policies such as those in New York.

Only a few months ago, Mayor DeStefano demonstrated how out of touch with reality he is. On Mon., Apr. 14, 1997, East Haven police officer Robert Flodquist chased a car he spotted speeding recklessly through a residential neighborhood. Flodquist and the suspect ended up in a parking lot, where the officer approached the suspect. As Flodquist came closer, the driver put his car into reverse and backed up toward him. Flodquist then shot and killed the suspect.

The autopsy showed that the driver, Malik Jones, had "more than trace amounts" of phencyclidine (PCP) and alcohol in his system. Moreover, six witnesses believed that Flodquist's life had been in danger. Yet DeStefano and New Haven Police Chi ef Melvin Wearing chose to engage in the most despicable form of race-baiting. While East Haven Mayor Henry Luizzi urged protesters to "re-examine their hasty opinion and accept the results of this forensic investigation," our mayor said that "failure to stop doesn't justify getting shot." Thank you Mayor DeStefano, but doesn't backing your car into a police officer justify getting shot?

Chief Wearing shared DeStefano's attitude, questioning Flodquist's actions and asking "what was he fighting for?" I'll tell you what Flodquist was fighting for. He was fighting to keep a reckless driver, under the influence of drugs, from run ning over innocent people. Perhaps Wearing thinks Flodquist should have practiced community policing by inviting Jones over for dinner instead.

The politicians have been equally inept at managing New Haven's economy. After massive tax hikes in the 1970s and 1980s, guess what? Businesses left. New Haven's continual anti-business policies have forced major companies out of the city during the pa st 10 years. Mayor DeStefano and city Democrats fail to recognize that New Haven and its residents do not have an inherent right to jobs. If businesses are treated unfairly, they will leave. People need jobs, and, like it or not, businesses give people jobs. This is not a city that can afford to lose jobs. During the past two years, the United States has had its best economy in a decade. But while job growth in cities of comparable size to New Haven has increased by nearly two percent annually, New Haven's job growth has shrunk by nearly one percent.

Recently, after finally getting a top-notch hotel into the city, Mayor DeStefano gave the Omni a real New Haven welcome. In the recent past, the NAACP, Local 217 (the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union), city residents, and the mayor himself have all criticized and protested against the Omni. In fact, Mayor DeStefano even decided to move the city's Columbus Day dinner from the Omni to Yale Commons. No wonder that while economists are predicting a five percent national job growth over the next two years, they are forecasting a growth of only 1.4 percent in New Haven. Hopefully, the mayor and city Democrats will start to recognize that New Haven needs jobs, and will stop bludgeoning any business attempting to come to New Haven. Or perhaps, city residents will get wise, and realize that until there is true political competition, the politicans will remain completely incompetent and unresponsive.

Does New Haven need a new approach? Respond in Speak your Mind.

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