The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Unity the message for 3 alder candidates
NEW HAVEN » Three Fair Haven alders came together with a message of unity Saturday as they announced their re-election bids.
Alders Kenneth Reveiz, D-14, Ernie Santiago, D-15, and Jose Crespo, D-16, launched their so-far uncontested campaigns at Chatham Square Park.
“We’re all running together as a slate trying to unite the neighborhood more,” said Reveiz, who was elected in March to fill the seat vacated by Santiago Berrios-Bones. “Our neighborhood is incredibly diverse so we’re trying to work on the most important issues. … The real theme of the event is unity and togetherness.”
Reveiz said the issue “that underlies safety, immigration, youth and seniors, I would say, is good jobs.”
Santiago, who is running for his fourth term, also listed jobs as his top priority, but added the issues of traffic, crime and housing. “New Haven has to come together,” he said. “I have worked with several … different alders in Fair Haven and I feel that this group has shown me more passion to work together, and that’s what we’re looking for in Fair Haven. It’s all up to you guys. First and foremost, you got to go and vote. You’ve got to show that that’s your voice. That’s how you say, ‘We’re here. We’re Fair Haven, we’re together, we’re here.’”
Crespo, who shared concerns about jobs, traffic and housing, said he wants to “try to make awareness of the different agencies here for Fair Haveners so they can go out and get jobs and become homeowners.”
“This is my home; my heart is here,” Crespo said. “This is not for the pay. This is because we truly love our community. We truly want to see that public policing is actually community policing, that people will actually listen to the kids, to the seniors, to everyone as a whole, that education is something we have to focus on for our future, our kids, and that people can actually have an opportunity to purchase a home and live in the community that they’ve grown up in.”
Introducing the candidates, Mayor Toni Harp said, “I am so proud of the work that we have done with the Board of Alders. … Because of them we’ve been able to hire 155 more police officers, we’ve been able to shut down a gang that terrorized this neighborhood and the Newhallville neighborhood; 21 people were put away. We’ve been able to continue the work that we do on economic development.”