by Abiba Biao The New Haven independent
Christian Peralta and Jose Orlando DeJesus.
Saturday’s cleanup crew.
Amidst the decomposing fall foliage in the John C. Daniels School parking lot, Alexandra Taylor Mendez spotted a variety of food packaging: 3 Musketeer wrappers, a Styrofoam Maruchan noodle cup, and a king-size wrapper of Reese’s Oreo Cup. In one fell swoop, Mendez scooped the pile up into a trash bag held open by her 9-year-old daughter Olivia. Olivia’s younger brother Tristan watched closely, trash picker in hand.
Mendez was one of 50 individuals who turned up for Saturday’s Hill neighborhood community cleanup. The event was organized by Hill neighborhood district manager Sgt. Jasmine Sanders and former City Plan Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe, and saw volunteers from community organizations such as Project M.O.R.E. and the Flynn Project show up to help.
Volunteers were separated into eight groups, with each group having a designated captain to lead cleanup efforts along particular areas and streets of the Hill.
“For me, and I think, for a majority of the people here, it’s more than just picking up litter or just cleaning up,” Sanders said. “It’s a way where the community and the residents are coming together and kind of like taking back their neighborhood.”
While the two are still deciding on the frequency of the meetings, Radcliffe said that she hopes to do one more cleanup before the winter sets in.
Despite living in Beaver Hills, Mendez considers the Hill her “adopted community,” as she attends community meetings and her kids are enrolled at John C. Daniels (JCD). She stressed the importance of community involvement, bringing out her husband and kids, as well as her niece Alex Taylor.
“Everybody should have a clean and safe neighborhood. It should not be, depending on your income or anything like that,” she said. “It’s important to do these types of things, because if you don’t, who else is?”
On the other side of the parking lot, Mendez’s husband Christian Peralta and Hill North Community Management Team Treasurer Jose Orlando DeJesus set up a rolling trash bin, putting in a fresh trash bag to keep the findings of the day’s activities.
Since 2009, DeJesus has been held cleanups around his property and the school, saying its a common occurrence to see used needles in the playground and on the street. He attributed the rise of used needles to the disbandment of a needle exchange program.
“Before, the needle exchange program was just that: it was a needle exchange. You give me a dirty needle, I give you a clean needle,” he said. “Now there’s not a needle exchange. Now it’s harm reduction and they just give up needles by the dozen.”
Another point of contention is responsibility for groundskeeping efforts. DeJesus added that improved writing in contracts and enforcement of contracts for subcontractors with clauses that include litter could help resolve the issue.
“You would not see that landscape in different neighborhoods. You wouldn’t see that in Westville, you wouldn’t see that in East Rock,” he said. “ You wouldn’t see that in those neighborhoods, but this is a fight that I have with them because the landscaping contractors don’t weed. They don’t pick up litter.”
Anthony Clemons.
Anthony Clemons, 58, was one of nine attendees from Project M.O.R.E who participated in the cleanup. Clemons was incarcerated for 43 years and had only been home in New Haven for four days; he decided to help around the neighborhood, citing his family as motivation behind his efforts.
“I fell, but now I picked myself up,” he said.
Clemons praised Project M.O.R.E as a motivator. “Until I leave here, whatever they need, I’m assisting,” he said.
He also had some words of advice for people: “Everybody knows where to start, they just got to take the initiative to do it.”
For Mendez, the cleanup was personal, wanting to show her children firsthand examples of civic action and engagement. She noted the drug usage of individuals during and after school hours and how it could be a safety concern especially amongst students who walk to school.
The APT Foundation, a nonprofit organization which provides substance use treatment right across the street from John C. Daniels School, has had longstanding controversy in the neighborhood. In July, Mendez and other Hill residents advocated against the APT Foundation expanding their operations to Long Wharf, citing the reasoning as preventing the spread of the problem. That Elicker administration-brokered deal, now on pause, would have moved APT’s methadone clinic from Congress Avenue in the Hill to Sargent Drive. On Saturday, Mendez said that while harm reduction initiatives are well-meaning, they aren’t effective, with APT clients allegedly selling their methadone which is used for medication-assisted treatment to help those struggling with opioid use disorder quit their addiction.
“They’re getting their money to get their addiction cut,” she said. “So what we’re fighting for is for the APT Foundation to start cleaning up their business practices and make the program do what it’s supposed to do, which is help the patients, instead of telling them to go somewhere else and then bring that issue somewhere else.”
Despite the usage problems and safety issues, Mendez underlined the efforts of JCD staff and unwavering support for JCD. There was a reason she chose JCD. With the school’s emphasis on multilingual education with English, Spanish, and Mandarin, the school allows her kids Tristan and Olivia to use their Spanish and affirm their multicultural identity as Guatemalan-Americans.
“I think that the Hill is unique because you see all walks of life here and it’s important to support all those works of life because everybody’s number one goal is to survive,” she said. She also discussed the importance of showing solidarity with immigrants. “When you give us a space to live, a quality of life, a safe place to live, then you meet people like me who bring their pride from their country… and they welcome the pride from the country that they’re immigrating to.”
Sg. Sanders showing a map of the eight groups and the places being cleaned
Miguel Pittman (third left) with Project M.O.R.E.