New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
HARP’S MAYORAL PORTRAIT ADDED TO CITY HALL GALLERY
NEW HAVEN — It was reunion time in City Hall as former Mayor Toni N. Harp, predecessor Mayor John DeStefano Jr., successor Mayor Justin Elicker and a host of politicos and city workers past and present returned Tuesday to pay tribute to Harp and celebrate the unveiling of her portrait to hang in City Hall.
“It’s so wonderful to see all of you today,” a beaming Harp said to more than 200 mostly masked people gathered in the City Hall Atrium when she finally got a chance to speak — following a dozen or so others — after the unveiling of the portrait, painted by Mario Moore, a Detroit artist who studied at the Yale School of Art.
Harp, the city’s 50th mayor, its first female mayor and the second African American to hold the office, served three terms from 2014 through 2019.
Unlike some of her predecessors, Harp did not appear to measure her worth or her accomplishments by the number of building projects she ushered into being — although she did mention the resurrection of the Dixwell Community “Q” House.
She talked about her involvement in a number of programs to make life better for New Haven’s children, including revival of the city’s community-based policing, expanding the Shotspotter gunshot recognition system, lowering its murder and violent crime rates, raising its graduation rate, and the New Haven Promise program which, with Yale’s help, pays for New Haven high school graduates to go to college.
“We worked with parents to do everything we could to keep our children safe” and “the murders went down to single digits,” she said.
Harp’s administration worked “to keep kids in school” because “when kids are in school, they are not on the streets,” she said.
The one construction project Harp seemed most proud of actually was a demolition project — the dismantling of the fence that had long separated Woodin Street and adjacent neighborhoods
“You were a powerhouse. You were a quiet storm.”
Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, to former New Haven Mayor Toni N. Harp
in Hamden from the New Haven Housing Authority's isolated, and then rebuilt, Brookside and Rockview communities, Abraham Ribicoff Cottages and Westville Manor project.
DeStefano, who served 10 terms from 1994 until 2014 — and spoke right before Harp — joked that his wife, Kathy, sent her condolences because while she has spent 42 years with him,
“you (Harp) get to spend eternity with me” hanging on the wall at City Hall.
“Yes, we will be next to each other for the next 150 years,” Harp shot back when her turn came around.
DeStefano said he always was impressed by “the joy of public service” that Harp displayed, and told her that New Haven elected officials have a history of laying the foundation for those who follow them, “and that's what you did.”
The event was organized by a committee set up for that purpose, chaired by Norma Rodriguez-Reyes, Alder Honda Smith, D-30, and DeStefano. RodriguezReyes, Smith and Veronica Douglass were the hosts.
Other speakers included Elicker; Moore; William Ginsberg, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven; state sen. Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven; state Rep. Juan Candelaria, D-New Haven; state Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven; Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, D-23; and local clergy members the Rev.
Jose Champagne of the Church of God of Prophecy, Bishop Theodore L. Brooks Sr., presiding bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World Inc., and the Rev. Shevalle Kimber of First Calvary Baptist Church.
Ginsberg announced the creation of the Toni N. Harp Endowment Fund for Youth and Seniors, which donors can reach at https://bit.ly/3G2oVfZ or by sending checks payable to Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to 70 Audubon St., New Haven, CT 06510.
Elicker said that during the 2 1/2 years he has been mayor “I have grown a deeper and deeper respect for the mayors who came before me,” including Harp, and “only mayors can understand what mayors are going through.”
He said one of the things he has learned from Harp is the value of focusing on economic, racial and social justice.
Walker-Myers told Harp “we respect you.” She pointed out while people say Harp was the first woman mayor, “she was the first BLACK woman mayor” and “she paved the way for me to do what I do ... It was because of your leadership and your strength that I could hole my group together.”
She told Harp, “You weren't just a mayor to me. You became a friend” and a family member. “You were a powerhouse. You were a quiet storm.”
Lisa Bellamy Fluke, one of several musical artists who performed, stunned the crowd with her rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” hitting the national anthem's rarely visited high note among other high points — than singer Teddey Brown brought the crowd to its feat with his rendition of “This Is The Moment.”