First, we need to thank you for your interest and patience, and apologize for not providing regular updates. We started from scratch and things have admittedly gone slower than we wanted. The good news is we are now in a position where we can provide more frequent communications – probably two to three times per week to start.
The first update is we have a new name: Our New Haven. We chose the name because these are our neighborhoods, our schools, our children, our parks, our homes, and our tax dollars. We live here, we own homes here, and we own businesses here. Many of us have grown up in New Haven, gone to school here, have lived here for many years, and plan to be here for many more. And we’re tired of special interests and outsiders taking control of our city. This is OUR City, OUR New Haven.
Our New Haven is going to run a candidate for the Mayor’s seat In November, and we’re also going to run candidates for the BOA. And we won’t shut down after the 2019 election. Win, lose, or draw in 2019 …we will have a ‘seat at the table’, and hold whomever wins accountable. We’re in it for the long run. Likewise, we aren’t waiting for next year’s inauguration before taking action. The time to act is now.
So, where do we go from here?
· We’re on a listening tour, and want to hear what you have to say. Please invite us to your Community Management Team (CMT), Local Block Watch, Church, Neighborhood Group etc.so we can get a better sense for the issues that are most important to your group. Send us an email here
· Based on what we hear from you, we’ll build OUR Platform for the 2019 Election. AND we’ll select a few issues important to ALL of our neighbors and begin addressing them NOW. Some suggestions that have been made so far include identifying and targeting slumlords, building a directory of Our New Haven Contractors (contractors who live in New Haven) , and pushing the City to develop a comprehensive plan, ahead of Spring, to deal with dirt bikes so we can take back OUR parks and OUR streets.
· In the meantime we will be building a scorecard to identify where the Mayoral candidates stand with respect to the issues. And we’ll continue our efforts to force this Mayor and this Administration to be more transparent.
