Minority State Of City Address Salutes Yale – New Haven Independent

HhE, if all else stays the same, what impact would a program like this have on our city? As family income grows, people generally have the means to and do move – or at least move up to more privileged blocks and neighborhoods.

If we raise taxes on our low-income renters (or solicit corporate donations) in our city in order to provide “good jobs” for a few people, but those people mostly move to Hamden, won’t we just have to raise taxes again on the low-income renters who take their place (or solicit even more corporate donations that could have been used, say, to hire more police officers to patrol crime hotspots)?

The program itself seems fine, especially if it is focused on residents living in areas like Newhallville or the Hill, and on residents with limited English ability, rather than just working to employ more residents from Westville or Fair Haven Heights (an important issue of program “targeting” that has not been publicly addressed). 

Hopefully, whoever is evaluating this investment (taxpayers? Yale?) is asking these types of questions—not just focusing on creating dozens upon dozens more expensive PR opportunities, flyers, and speeches about their job pipeline. 

What would be the benefit of using those resources instead to fix decrepit housing in the Fair Haven foreclosure “heat zone” (e.g., LCI having no enforcement), on youth centers, or on shoring up our understaffed police department?