2019 Mayoral Candidates Top Priorities
/Our New Haven reached out to the 2019 Mayoral Candidates and asked each to list the top five issues/priorities they would focus on as Mayor. The goal here is to get a general sense for what each is thinking, understanding that it is still early in the process. As we move forward we hope to be able to share (and compare) specific platforms. The candidate’s unedited responses are below, published in the order in which they were received. Note that we did not ask them to list the issues in order of priority, so you should not assume that #1 is more important than #5. Also, Justin Elicker chose to submit four issues at this time.
Lastly, we’ve turned Comments On. Please be civil and stick to the issues.
Updated 03-10-2019. Urn Pendragon has entered the Mayor’s race.
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Hello Dennis,
It would be my pleasure to provide brief bullet points to describe my top 5 priorities. There are so many layers of depth to the current issues and problems that New Haven needs to overcome in order to grow beyond a near flat line of annual trends over the last 20 to 30 years. Sure, subjects like low crime rates, fiscal conservatism and political accountability are very important, but by strangling the resources needed to promote and sustain economic growth need to be reinforced and bolstered, not streamlined.
I will expand on my action plans in a future communication, but here are the top 5 ranked areas of my campaign:
1. Wide-scale equitable, affordable housing so residents can have spendable revenue that can be circulated throughout the city's economy.
2. Green, renewable and scalable energies to bolster power grid resilience, lower monthly reliance on imported electricity and provide jobs.
3. Political accountability, by way of an easy-to-access progress report online, so the public can follow along with what the local government is doing.
4. Centralize and organize all of the non-profits together into a citywide coalition, to provide efficient shelter, food, healthcare and job assistance to those in need, and fund-raise to stock-up needed resources.
5. An audit of the city's spending and annual budget, to identify expenditures that need to be either streamlined, reinforced or cut entirely.
Everything on my list carries the same weight of concern, but since you asked for a ranked top 5, I did my best to briefly explain them. Thank you for your time!
Take care and be well,
Urn Pendragon
Wendy Hamilton
Thank you, Dennis. Of course nothing is written in stone. I remain flexible as I hear more bad news about the city budget.
I now list top 5 issues:
1. Budget fix
2.House the homeless
3.More $$ for schools
4.Police contract
5.Improve mass transit
Of course I can easily expand and explain the list items at length, if desired.
wendy
Mayor Harp
Thank you for reaching out with this opportunity… the mayor’s continuing priorities are listed as highlighted edits to your e-mail below…
Thank you again…
Laurence
1. continue improvements in public safety protocol to extend five-year trend of lower crime rates
2. perpetuate New Haven Public Schools trends re: higher graduation rates, higher college enrollment and persistence rates, greater New Haven Promise participation, and lower suspension and expulsion rates
3. add to economic development, jobs creation, and private-sector construction to ensure vibrant New Haven economy going forward
4. maintain fiscal restraint to manage public funds responsibly and judiciously
5. act on additional initiatives to streamline city government, increase interactive capabilities, and make it more efficient in its operations
Justin Elicker
I'll be formulating something more robust in written form in the future. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.
Justin,
-Provide fiscal discipline to get the city's short and long term finances in order.
-Focus on achieving real results in our school system and provide stability in planning.
-Implement economic development policy that isn't just about new buildings, but focuses on job creation for all and building our tax base by attracting more startups in New Haven, training residents through a pipeline to existing job opportunities and by growing our industrial base.
-Ensure transparent, honest, collaborative, accountable and accessible government that people trust and can rely on.