What is due?

Public testimony given to the Board of Alders of New Haven CT on February 26, 2021. Meeting on what the residents of the city of New Haven need.

Good evening,

My name is Dave Cruz-Bustamante, I use he/they pronouns. I am a high school student and a community organizer at Sunrise Movement New Haven and Citywide Youth Coalition.

I believe we are in need of urgent action to combat the climate crisis and the drastic inequality and poverty we see in New Haven. 40% of New Haven residents can’t afford basic needs like housing and food and 34% of youth live in poverty. These numbers point us to various solutions that we need to collectively construct and implement: a Green New Deal, a new public safety system, and greater accountability of the rich and large institutions like Yale, who have their buildings set on New Haven soil, while not paying a dime in taxes as our infrastructure crumbles, as children go hungry, and as our schools fail. The Climate Crisis is real, that was made very clear in these past few years. And it would be foolish and irresponsible to believe that people of color, disabled people, and working class families in New Haven won’t face the brunt of devastation and loss brought on by the Climate Crisis and systemic racism.

A Green New Deal is a strong and achievable policy that, not only tackles the Climate Crisis, but also forages a path of dignified, sustainable living that listens and responds to the needs of the community. Good paying, union jobs created to build housing, community centers, green spaces, clean energy sources, and more. A new public safety system that provides specialized support to those who need it, and not a bunch of people with guns, is long overdue. These solutions may be difficult to ground and push federally, but it can certainly be achieved locally.

Poverty, inequality, criminalization, and the climate crisis cannot be deemed “solved” until every unsheltered person on the street has a home, until everyone has access to nutritious food, until poor people, people of color, and children are not criminalized for being who they are while walking down the street and walking past the school gate, and until everyone has access to safe, clean streets and green spaces that make our city worth living in.

The people want this, all we need is political will- the will to collect Yale’s check, the will to listen to neighborhoods and community members, and the will to jump into action and mobilize.

Thank you,

Dave Cruz-Bustamante