The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
⏩ Crowds turn out to greet VP.
NEW HAVEN — You almost didn’t have to ask Maya Cedor, 6, and her brother Dresden, 8, what was so special about Vice President Kamala Harris flying into Tweed New Haven Regional Airport to visit New Haven and West Haven that would cause their family to wait for hours just to catch a glimpse of her limo driving by.
All you had to do was read the sign sketched out on the blackboard Maya held: “My VP looks like me!!”
OK, it was Maya’s mother, Gayathri Cedor — whose family was among about 150 people gathered along Burr and Dean streets to watch Harris’ plane land and hope for a glimpse — who spelled things out on the blackboard. But in their family, it’s even more applicable.
The kids are half AfricanAmerican, half South IndianAmerican, two of the same ethnicities that are part of Harris’ makeup.
“We live here in New Haven” and “I’m just excited for the kids to see her,” said Cedor, who took her kids out of their remote learning at Nathan Hale School — with an email to their teachers — so they could be there. Why?
“She’s the first woman to be vice president,” said Dresden, who held a whiteboard that read, “Welcome to New Haven.”
“We’ll make up the classes,” said his mom, speaking moments before Harris touched down.
When Air Force 2, Harris’ plane, landed at 2:26 p.m. — nearly an hour later than the most recently-announced arrival time — Katie Conner, who lives on Burr Street across the street from Tweed, was gently cradling her newborn daughter, Elizabeth, 6 months, who rocked in front of her in a sling around her mom’s neck.
“My daughter’s only 6 months old, and I thought this might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for her,” Conner said. Even if Elizabeth doesn’t remember it, Katie Conner will be able to tell her about it.
For Conner, “It makes a big difference” that Harris is a woman. Last November, “I watched her give her victory speech and I thought, “That could be my daughter in 30 or 40 years.”
Thretha Green of West Haven could barely contain her joy as she streamed her first-ever Facebook Live video of Harris’ plane landing.
“I’m just excited,” said Green, a trauma therapist who grew up in New Haven. “She’s here to represent for our urban towns, for people who have suffered from COVID-19” and she was glad to see Harris and President Joe Biden addressing some of the problems in the country.
“It’s just amazing,” said Green, also president of the National Association of Negro Professional Women’s Clubs’ New Haven chapter and co-chairwoman of the Greater New Haven NAACP’s Criminal Justice Committee. “I took a lunch break just to see it.”
Not everyone there at Tweed was a Harris or Biden fan.
Anthony Laudano confided earlier that he voted for former President Donald Trump, but after Harris’ plane landed, he held his son, Anthony Jr., and whispered in his ear, “The vice president, buddy! This is history!
“He’s going to be the vice president one day,” Laudano said.
While one crowd was waiting at Tweed, another was forming across town near the New Haven Boys and Girls Club on Columbus Avenue in the Hill neighborhood, where Harris was engaging in a roundtable discussion as part of her first stop.
About an hour-and-a-half before Harris’ scheduled arrival at the Boys and Girls Club, New Havener Angela Brown and her daughter Jadyn stood at the corner of Columbus and Howard avenues hoping to see the vice president.
“I wish that more youth could be here,” Brown said.
Brown wore a button remembering a family friend killed in the Hill in 2014. Brown herself said she was shot on Dixwell Avenue in 1991. Urban violence “is a big, big issue with me,” she said.
She said she hoped Harris will “actually press on the issues and actually ask what can be done?”
“We’re all human at the end of the day. We all deal with the same issues,” she said.
Lifelong New Haven resident Timothy Little held a sign that said “STOP EVICTIONS, CANCEL RENT.”
The Cedar Street resident said he’s worried about being evicted from his apartment next month after losing two fast-food jobs due to the pandemic. “I want to be heard. This is the major issue in Connecticut right now. What am I going to do?”
Hill resident Luz Ramos brought her 7-year-old granddaughter in the hopes they could see Harris.
“When she became vice president it was a very heartfelt time for us,” Ramos, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico in 1997, said. “It’s very important to show our kids they can achieve anything.”
Activists from Unidad Latina en Accion also were on hand to welcome Harris.
Director John Lugo said the time to act on immigration reform is now, when Democrats control the White House and Congress.
“This is the time to do it, but they have to have the guts and the courage to pass immigration reform,” Lugo said.
In West Haven, a crowd slowly gathered on Washington Avenue to watch Harris arrive at the West Haven Child Development Center, eventually numbering about 50 people.
Patty Horvath said she wanted to see the motorcade. In the past, she saw Bill Clinton and Barack Obama on Martha’s Vineyard. But such visits are uncommon in West Haven.
“It’s very exciting for West Haven to have her,” said Horvath.
Donna Middleton said she wanted to see a “historical moment,” also noting the relative rarity of something like this happening in town.
“Hopefully, she’ll come back again,” said Middleton.
Asked why she was there, Rachale Scaranuzzo nodded at her daughter, Sofia, who exclaimed that she also wanted to be president or vice president someday.
“It’s great for her to see someone in charge, making decisions that’ll affect us,” said Scaranuzzo.
Soon after 4:15 p.m., the motorcade came by. Cops on motorcycles led the way for large black SUVs, adorned with tiny American flags. The crowd cheered and whooped in excitement.
Back at Tweed, Burr Street neighbors Dashayla Miller and Jessica Ferraro were strolling along with Ferraro’s son, Tim, 3, in a stroller, as snipers wearing camouflage uniforms climbed to the top of the Tweed administration building’s former control tower to check out the angles.
Why were Miller and Ferraro there?
“Obviously, the vice president is coming — our first female and African-American vice president,” they said. “This is history — something — something I don’t want to miss.”