>I'm sorry- John is just failing to be be accurate. DeStephano has denounced
>repeatedly Yale's failures to negotiate with the Yale unions, denounced
>their failure to sign card checks, and a variety of other failures of Yale.
>Does he give in to the blackmail Yale has used, as the city's largest
>employer, for decades to bully and threaten city officials? Of course and
>I'm sure there are better people for the job. But playing New Haven
>politics as if DeStephno is Darth Vader is just a detachment from reality.
Fact: At the state of the city on Monday, in typical DLC fashion the mayor criticized both Yale and the unions for failing to work constructively to achieve a settlement. At union rallies, Destefano does not "denounce" Yale's history of union busting-probably the most vicious of any university-but merely mouths the appropriate slogans when it comes to card check or organizing. Those who know how to listen, including both union officials and the Yale administration, get the message loud and clear, which is why the unions almost dumped him until they found out they couldn't afford to last November.
No one is claiming Destefano is "Darth Vader." Anyone who wasn't born yesterday knows that that an ambitious politician's options are constrained by the channels for advancement available within the party structure. This means doing the bidding of local and regional corporate power (Yale, major contractors, real estate developers, biotech, major law firms, etc.) whenever possible while making whatever concessions are necessary to appease his base. His actions are completely predictable within this framework. It is this framework in which the Democrats are completely complicit and is what needs to be changed.
>There is little question that DeStephano is a pro-development, pro-jobs
>Democrat, which is quite popular with many folks in a poor city. I cut my
>teeth early on as an environmental activist, but Greens often talk about
>closing down power plants as if that doesn't mean loss of jobs for a bunch
>of folks.
Fact: The restarting of a mothballed power plant will contribute, according to the plant's current owners, no more than 12 jobs and no more than half of these would come from the adjacent community. Destefano's support for it was a political payoff, pure and simple. Same with the existing power plant which employs a skeleton staff and almost certainly partly responsible for the 25% rate of asthma among New Haven school children. Same with numerous other "economic development" schemes: to a greater or lesser degree, payoffs to the same pool of politically connected real estate, contracting and development concerns. I'd be glad to provide chapter and verse and name names for those interested.
>The fact is that local officials have few economic tools to
>create jobs, which puts them in all sorts of shitty choices, which is why I
>argue that most local politics is pretty marginal, not because it shouldn't
>matter to people, but because our political system is designed to disempower
>local government by starving them of the resources to make a difference.
New Haven has been a massive recipient of federal aid since it became the first model city under the Lee administration in the early 60s. Local officials have consistently chosen to channel this money to politically connected developers and contracting firms, paying off political favors and, in so doing, in many cases, providing a spring board to national positions of considerable influence. (Lieberman being the most recent example.) The "disempowerment" of local government is, in many cases, a ruse provided to prevent the public from asking questions.
>And yes, compared to the vast numbers of suburban officials whose idea of
>urban planning is preventing poor people from moving in, DeStephano's
>politics are ultraliberal. Back when I lived in Oakland, the majority of
>the city council were former members of Marxist organizations. It barely
>made a difference in how city policy effected peoples lives, because cities
>don't have the power to create the jobs and control many of the issues that
>most impact peoples lives.
While I don't have the time to argue the point, I think I have provided pretty good reason for believing that the last sentence is much less true than Newman wants you to believe. -- John Halle Green Party Alderman Ward 9, New Haven, CT