Mayoral candidate Shafiq Abdussabur made a play for East Shore voters by calling for tax cuts for airport neighbors and questioning the removal of Wooster Square Park’s Christopher Columbus statue.
In the process, he and incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker ended up accusing each other of playing “identity politics.” Neither meant it as a compliment. Or as having the same meaning.
Abdussabur — one of three Democrats challenging two-term incumbent Mayor Elicker for the party nomination in a Sept. 12 primary — took those stances as part of a position paper his campaign released Monday for the East Shore’s Annex and Morris Cove neighborhoods.
Some people in those neighborhoods have blasted Mayor Elicker for supporting the expansion of Tweed New Haven Airport to accommodate commercial flights by Avelo Airlines to (as of this coming June 19, at last count) 17 cities.
Abdussabur’s platform calls for, among other measures:
• Rezoning Morris Cove and Annex as “airport impact zones” with a lower mill rate than the rest of the city.
• Renegotiating the Tweed community benefits agreement with New Haven to increase money for noise pollution reduction, environmental improvements, and traffic calming.
• Having experts including from the Yale forestry school independently review the impact on wetlands depicted by a recent environmental assessment.
• Upping admission fees at Lighthouse Point Park for out-of-town visitors.
Read Abdussabur’s full statement here.