New London Candidate Profile: Frida Berrigan for Mayor

NEW LONDON, CT —New London’s election season is down to the wire.

New London Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns. Today, Monday Oct. 28 is the last day to submit the Patch candidate profile Q & A.

Frida Berrigan, 45, is a member of the Green Party running for election as mayor. (Berrigan's name does not appear on the ballot. She filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State. She participated in the mayoral debate.)

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you'd be representing.

No

Education:

Bachelor of Arts from Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts

Occupation:

Office Manager at FRESH New London, a food justice organization

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office:

None

The single most pressing issue facing our town/district is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Poverty is the single biggest issue— 1 in 3 New Londoners live in poverty. I intend to address poverty first by acknowledging it, then by pointing out that a lot of wealth is created by poor and working people and at their expense. From there, I will work for affordable, high quality housing and to hold landlords accountable for their properties.

New London has the lowest rate of homeownership in the state, less than 40% of residents own their homes. Very high rents, high rates of absentee landlords, buying a home is often cheaper than paying rent. But there are financial, racial, historic barriers to home ownership in our community. And in a city marked by multiple waves of eminent domain seizures, there is a legacy of mistrust to overcome as well. In New London, home ownership has not meant economic security and the American dream to people live on Shapley Street or Smith Street.

The Green Party played an instrumental role in forming the brand new Community Land Trust that is organizing to buy properties and renovate them. Then the CLT will sell them to New London residents who have been trained and prepared for the benefits and responsibilities of ownership. New London has a number of agencies working on affordable housing and the Green Party celebrates them. At the same time, we need the city to be responsive to the needs and complaints of renters around substandard housing.


What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am a woman. I am the parent of small children. I am younger. I am a community organizer and consensus builder

List other issues that define your campaign platform:

Free the Beach! Negotiate with Centerplate to make Ocean Beach free or low-cost to New London residents, and explore the potential for developing other city-owned waterfront properties for recreational use.

Reject the excessive $110,000 compensation for Mayor in a city where the median income is well below the poverty line and some city employees earn as little as $14/hour. I will donate 1/2 my wages to initiatives that improve our recycling rate and reduce solid waste.

Modify the tax code to make it fairer: end the penalty for property improvements, and eliminate the regressive car tax, which places a disproportionate burden on city residents.

Establish a Citizens’ Truth and Reconciliation Committee to address and heal wounds left by past practices of redlining, urban renewal, and displacement of residents from Fort Trumbull and other working-class neighborhoods.

Utilize our valuable deep-water port to generate green jobs that benefit our city’s workforce and protect the environment; work with the Port Authority to ensure that New London residents are hired to well-paid, unionized jobs, such as wind turbine manufacture and staging.

Actively support local initiatives that create permanently affordable housing and pathways to homeownership for residents. Encourage stewardship by offering 5-year tax abatements on property improvements.

Improve our public transit system and increase ridership by repairing and maintaining bus shelters, posting information about bus schedules, and disseminating information about the benefits of public transportation.

Honor the Charter requirement that department heads reside in New London, and offer incentives to encourage all city employees to live here.

Encourage broader participation in city government by upgrading stipends for City Councilors and Board of Education members, and providing childcare at meetings to enable parents to attend.

Emphasize conservation when planning for development: favor smaller scale and in-fill projects that maintain our historic streetscapes and make our community more walkable and sustainable; prioritize people over cars; and increase residential density. Support NL Trees’ recommendation to plant 3,500 new trees over the next decade, and establish a fund for their care and maintenance.

Work with City Council to establish a Non-Lapsing Fund dedicated to school building maintenance, which would encourage fiscal responsibility and affirm trust, investment and care for our educators and young people.

Support Solid Waste Management Task Force recommendations: purchase wheeled recycle bins and provide more recycling education; invest in robust staffing for Public Works so that they can keep our community clean and safe

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Leading the city of New London is not a one person job, and if elected I would seek out a committed, motivated, diverse Community of New Londoners to help serve the people of New London.

The best advice ever shared with me was …

Listen, ask questions, never stop learning. Be humble.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I’m committing to a public, participatory, popular education style process about our money, our priorities and our resources.

With your work, we can make New London a town that works, that makes sense, that is just, or the people who live here now and who will live here in the future, no matter the booms and busts in our wider world.

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