New Haven’s very unusual City Hall, designed by Henry Austin in a Victorian Gothic style, was built in 1861.
— Photo by Sage Ross
MANCHESTER, Conn.
Recently New Haven's big news has included the usual shootings, the continued inability of the city's students to read at anything close to grade level despite their school system's ever-increasing budgets, controversy over the selection of a new police chief, and, of course, the paralyzing injury suffered by a man in police custody because the city never got around to installing seat belts in a van used to convey prisoners. (Elsewhere in the United States seat belts have been standard equipment in motor vehicles for more than 50 years.)
But last week New Haven's Board of Alders -- what less pretentious jurisdictions would call the city council -- took another break from hard local reality. The board accepted the recommendation of the city's Peace Commission and approved a resolution urging President Biden to end the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba.
There were no signs that the State Department, the United Nations and the Cuban government were hanging on the resolution's fate. There were signs that city residents were concerned about the shootings, education failure and the police department.
The objective of New Haven's Peace Commission is -- really -- to protect the city against nuclear war. In that respect maybe the commission can claim to be doing a great job.
Peace on the city's own streets has been much more difficult to achieve, and despite the political correctness and self-righteousness that characterize the city's intelligentsia, even a few city residents might be wondering why these days anyone in city government has time to worry about Cuba.
The P.C. distractions in New Haven city government go well beyond Cuba. Two years ago the city established a Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force. The emergency was so urgent that the task force wasn't appointed for more than a year after the Board of Alders authorized it. The task force's objective is "to end community-wide greenhouse gas emissions" by 2031 and figure out how "to safely draw down carbon from the atmosphere."
And why not? Those problems, challenging as they seem, may be easier to solve than making city streets safe, the schools effective, and city government more competent generally. Since the latter problems are so difficult, addressing them usually fails, so addressing them won't make the intelligentsia feel as good about itself as devotion to Cuba, climate change, and facilitating illegal immigration, New Haven having declared itself a "sanctuary city."
Indeed, New Haven's political correctness may be a big part of what makes the city's problems so intractable, shielding city government against the possibility of criticism from local news organizations, which embrace city government's leftward tilt despite its chronic deficiencies.
Really, how fair is it to criticize city government over the basics when it's trying so hard with Cuba, climate change, and nullifying immigration law?
But if its news organizations won't do the job, who will help New Haven residents understand that political correctness is no substitute for public administration?
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Connecticut's news organizations outside New Haven aren't always much help either. Despite the constant mayhem in New Haven and the state's other cities, news organizations lately are paying more attention to what is being called a sharp rise in distribution of "white supremacist" flyers, which recently have been found in 15 towns.
But the flyers don't accomplish anything beyond stoking more leftist hysteria about the "right wing," which, without evidence, is accused of being the source of the flyers, though the flyers are distributed anonymously and don't provide accurate attribution. Police are investigating but even if a source is discovered, nothing could be done unless the flyers directly threaten people. So far they don't.
Connecticut has had some bloody crimes while the flyers have been distributed but the flyers weren't the perpetrators. Thanks to news organizations, the flyers have just distracted from the worsening mayhem.
For all anybody knows, the flyers could be distributed by some left-wing group as a false-flag operation. In any case they might not be distributed as much if news organizations weren't so eager to publicize them.
Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer, in Manchester.
