A recent article from the New Haven Independent gives more information on CTC President and CEO Matthew Nemerson's New Haven mayoral campaign, including his motivations for running, ideas for changes and innovations in governance, as well as his progressive plan for a new debate format in the Elm City.
From the article: “I want to run for mayor because the next mayor has got to be able to forge a partnership between the unions, between the existing government apparatus, has to be able to explain why New Haven is going to be the next great global small city,” Nemerson, who’s 57, said in an interview Tuesday.
He argued that his background—current president and CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council trade group, former president of New Haven’s Chamber of Commerce (where he was one of the state’s first business leaders to support a progressive income tax), founding vice-president of Science Park, as well as co-chair of the 19th Ward Democratic Committee since 1994—gives him the ability to play that role. He laid out a campaign platform that includes building concentrated new communities downtown and by the harbor to lure 10,000 new people to live in New Haven (by constructing mixed-income high-rises surrounded by three-story townhouses and storefronts closer to the street); developing manufacturing-oriented industrial parks in Fair Haven and along Ella Grasso Boulevard in the quest to create 10,000 new jobs; and luring Yale or Harvard or Columbia to help the city launch a Bronx Science-style competitive-admissions public high school that would be “the best in state.”
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[Here is] Nemerson’s campaign-opening challenge to his opponents: that they should all agree as a group to conduct 15 debates across the city’s 30 wards. Besides promoting debate on issues, that will lessen the influence of money in the race, Nemerson argued.
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Central to Nemerson’s platform is the notion of “smarter” 21st century government that learns from private-sector management advances.
Advances like “just-in time” manufacturing: Processes that respond to day-to-day demands and market realities rather than fixed long-term schedules.
Government can do that with street-sweeping, Nemerson said. Rather than adhere to an annual cycle dictating when each street gets swept—or which neighborhood gets sidewalks fixed or public spaces get cleaned—government should bring all agencies together to respond immediately to where problems develop.
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The article identifies members of Nemerson's campaign staff, many of which are well-known members of the New Haven community.
Sal Brancati: Adviser/Fundraiser
Angel Fernandez: Treasurer
Wade Gibson: Deputy Treasurer
Chuck Mascola: Marketing
The article was written by Paul Bass, and appeared in the New Haven Independent. The full text can be found here.
