By
David Parish
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| William
Ginsberg |
William Ginsberg is president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater
New Haven, the largest philanthropic institution in the New Haven region. From
1984 to 1988,
Mr. Ginsberg served as development administrator for the City of New Haven. In
1994
Mr. Ginsberg was confirmed by the United States Senate as assistant secretary
for economic development in the U.S. Department of Commerce and served as chief
of staff to the late Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown. From 1997 to 2000, he
was managing director and chief operating officer of the Federal Housing Finance
Board, the regulatory agency for the
12 regional Federal Home Loan Banks.
Many Connecticut cities are struggling, losing population
and economic strength.
That’s correct. Connecticut cities rank poorly, even when
compared to other weak-market cities. New Haven is climbing back
from a period of decline, and has done better than most, but the
city still faces significant challenges.
What went wrong in New Haven?
What happened in New Haven is not dissimilar to the experience
of many older, industrial cities. New Haven was an industrial powerhouse,
a city of clocks and locks and carriages and guns, but in the third
quarter of the 20th century changes
in the national economy and competition from other regions devastated
New Haven manufacturing. By the 1980s all the big manufacturers
were gone or greatly diminished; when the economic reason for being
disappeared, the ability of the community to provide employment
and a decent life declined and social pathology followed. Poverty
in Connecticut became concentrated in the cities. Connecticut cities
are small and politically weak and they have never received the
priority from the state that they deserve.
The city seemed to wander, to lose faith in itself.
New Haven, starting in the 1950s, began to look for its future.
The city took a long time to come to grips with that challenge.
When I came here in the 1980s there was an ingrained resistance
to facing the reality that the past was not coming back and that
the community had to embrace a new future. The dynamic was complicated
by the presence of Yale University in the community. Historically,
there was a lot of tension between the world-class institution
and the blue-collar industrial city. As other businesses were shrinking,
Yale was growing and becoming a huge magnet for world resources.
It was difficult to reconcile the disparities of fortune between
Yale and the city.
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| A
renovated house in the AHP-funded West River Homeownership
Campaign in New Haven. |
How did the city come out of its drift?
What makes New Haven such a special place is the people who are
here, people who are deeply committed to the city. It became increasingly
obvious to people in the city that the future of the city and the
future of its major institutions, such as Yale, were tied together.
I don’t want to overstate the importance of Yale, but it’s
difficult not to. Although Yale has always been supportive of the
community, it adopted a very different stance under the leadership
of its current president, Rick Levin. When Rick Levin was chosen
to head the university, the Yale Corporation went with someone
who was from the community, someone who understood New Haven. Rick
made it clear from the beginning that New Haven was a priority
and Yale set out in a deliberate way not only to contribute to
the community, but to lead. The university came to the realization
that the business community had fallen away and the nonprofit sector,
Yale in
particular, had to come forward. Yale had the financial heft, the
vision, and the need to lead. One of the reasons the community
embraced a future tied to Yale was that Yale was willing to embrace
the community.
It must have been difficult for Yale to
make that decision.
Organizations such as Yale often want to be
seen as supportive, but not as leaders. True. Yale has high visibility
and very deep pockets, and I am sure there was concern about committing
resources to a venture where success was certainly not guaranteed.
Is there now a spirit of optimism about
the future in New Haven?
Yes, definitely. New Haven is making lots of progress in lots of
ways. The city looks good, feels good. It’s
vibrant and alive. The neighborhoods are relatively healthy, downtown
is doing well, and there are plans to move forward. However, no
one is under any illusion that the track that we are on will solve
the fundamental underlying social problems of poverty and lack
of educational achievement. At the core of
the city is an activist community, and they won’t accept
partial victories.
How would you describe the redevelopment strategy? Was
there a conscious strategy and if so, what was it?
The strategy has changed dramatically. In the 1990s the city was
still pursuing a huge, regional shopping mall, a project that didn’t
happen. The fundamental transition in strategy came when New Haven
figured out that it can compete and win if it competes on urban,
and not on suburban terms. A super-regional shopping mall is a
suburban strategy, but where New Haven has succeeded is with arts
and culture, our summer international festival of arts and ideas,
partnerships with the city’s educational institutions, and
its revitalized urban neighborhoods. Cities need to decide what
makes them attractive and go after that. Conscious or not, that
has been the New Haven strategy, and it has made all the difference.
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| A Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven renovation.
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What happened to New Haven’s neighborhoods
during the period of decline, and what has happened to them since
then?
The neighborhoods suffered terribly, but not always from neglect.
New Haven was the model city in the 1950s and 1960s. More federal
redevelopment dollars were spent in New Haven per capita than in
any other city in America. And much, in the end, was spent in misguided
ways.
The recent destruction of the New Haven Coliseum is the perfect
metaphor, a grand vision at the time, but ultimately the wrong
vision. That said, we shouldn’t overly romanticize the past.
Areas of the city had gone terribly downhill and radical redevelopment
seemed in order. But terrible mistakes were made and New Haven
paid a high price for a long time. The fabric of the community
was so ripped open that it took it a long time to figure out how
to begin to stitch it back together. The healing began with recognition
that New Haven has wonderful, older neighborhoods with beautiful
architectural qualities, and residents with terrific loyalties.
A powerful neighborhood sense is central to what the city is all
about, a key strength.
Has building on the neighborhood strengths
become part of the redevelopment and political philosophy?
Yes, without question. New Haven has a very active network of community-based
organizations working throughout the city. The current city administration
has been supportive, but it’s a slow process. It’s
difficult for nonprofit organizations to work at a large scale.
I suspect that history’s verdict will be that you need to
do the work one house, one street at a time. The revitalization
process has certainly been helped by changes in the market and
people’s preferences. Young people, and
some older people, are moving back to the city, living downtown,
finding what they can’t find in the suburbs.
What has New Haven learned that has applicability to other
communities?
Know and understand your strengths and compete on that basis. And
political stability in New Haven has made a huge difference. John
DeStefano has been a somewhat controversial figure but I believe
he has been an excellent mayor, providing strong, consistent leadership
since 1994. Other Connecticut cities have not fared
so well.
I’m curious about what you brought
to New Haven from your experience at the Federal Housing Finance
Board and the banking industry.
When I think back on my experience it occurs to me that the thread
is community: community economic development, community banking,
community philanthropy, working at the community level, approaching
challenges from the community perspective. In a sense, that is
what the Federal Home Loan Bank System is about, encouraging and
supporting community banks. Unfortunately, in a city like New Haven,
most of the community banks have disappeared – and they are
sorely missed.
What about issues that remain in New Haven?
What worries you about the future?
Just look at the numbers as to poverty and educational achievement.
No one is under any illusion that, even with all of the progress
that has been made, the city has addressed underlying social problems.
I’m not talking about eliminating poverty in New Haven, but
simply moving those trend lines in the right direction. Educational
achievement is a prime example. The achievement gap between white
and minority students is larger in Connecticut than in any other
state. Also, crime and violence, which had been trending down,
is now trending back up. If crime — or even the perception
of crime — returns, I fear for the city.
New Haven’s new economy is also fragile. The city has been
able to capitalize on things such as pharmaceuticals and bio-medical
technologies but New Haven faces
stiff competition from Boston, the Bay Area, and emerging international
centers. We need to remain focused on support for these emerging
technologies and can’t assume that we will be successful.
Fundamentally, there is only so much that a
city can do. We need stronger and more cooperative state and federal
partners.
But, ultimately, with the level of community commitment that exists,
and with Yale as the foundation for a new local economy and a strong
private-sector role, I’m very optimistic about New Haven’s
future. T |
