by Mona Mahadevan The New Haven independent
The new school year begins!
On her first walk from downtown to East Rock Park, one of the city’s newest residents, Evelyn Hernandez, was struck by the city’s wealth disparities. Block by block, she noted the sharp contrasts in size, quality, and condition of homes.
Hernandez, who’s from New Jersey, recounted that experience on Yale’s Old Campus Monday morning, as she prepared to head to the university’s Opening Assembly across the street.
Just the day before, she and the other 1,788 members of Yale College’s Class of 2029 had moved into their new homes for the next year.
Alissa Lai, a first-year student from L.A., echoed Hernandez’s observations about New Haven. “If you walk a few minutes off campus, you’ll see shops closing down” and people who lack the opportunities she has, explained Lai.
While recognizing the wealth inequality, Lai and Hernandez also praised New Haven as a diverse, welcoming city. “It’s very community-oriented,” said Hernandez. Lai nodded, adding, “It brings together so many cultures.” The two of them are in Trumbull College, one of Yale’s 14 residential colleges, and are in the same first-year advising group.
Also on Old Campus — a gated quadrangle that houses most of Yale’s first-year students and is bounded by College, Chapel, High, and Elm Streets — was Elias Theodore, a 19-year-old junior at Yale running in a three-way Democratic primary for Ward 1 alder. He was out on campus Monday morning to sign people up to vote. While he said 50 people filled out voter registration forms on Sunday, the point of his table was more to encourage new Yalies to “think a little bit about New Haven over the next four years.” On Sunday, another candidate for Ward 1 Alder, Rhea McTiernan Huge, was also out tabling.
Theodore spent Sunday and Monday telling people about some of the issues facing New Haven, as well as the Elicker administration’s plans for the Green. To people who were interested, he also discussed some of his zoning-related proposals for increasing the city’s housing supply.
As this reporter was interviewing Theodore, a family walked by and asked how to get to Cross Campus. After directing them, Theodore said, “There’s been a lot of that, too.”
Theodore added that he hopes Yale students find ways to engage with the city, whether tutoring through Dwight Hall at Yale, coaching basketball at local schools, or getting coffee with municipal leaders. The first-year students “should be people that are excited to be at Yale and excited to be in New Haven,” he said.
Hordes of people make the journey from Old Campus to Cross Campus for Yale’s Opening Assembly, marking the beginning of the school year.
Elias plans to be on Old Campus, signing people up to vote and talking about New Haven, for most of the week.