NewHavenBIZ

16 n e w h a v e n B I Z | O c t o b e r 2 0 1 8 n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m area [traditionally College, Chapel and Crown streets], but to walk four or five blocks from your apart- ment on Howe Street to walk all the way down Chapel Street to go to Sally's or Pepe's on Wooster Street. You are seeing amazing diversity now." As Mayor Toni Harp put it, "New Haven is an old city made new." New Haven & the Blue Mother For much of its history New Ha- ven was Connecticut's largest city, most important port of entry, most dynamic economic engine and even its capital city (well, half of the time — see story, page 46). A thriving commercial center at various times of shipping, of carriage-making, of weapons production. A center too of education and entrepreneurship, fueled by innovators like Eli Whit- ney and A.C. Gilbert. "In the 19th century New Haven was one of the richest cities in America," Nemerson points out. Both Charles Dickens and Mark Twain described Hillhouse Avenue as "the most beautiful street in America," and perhaps it was. It was also one of the most important ports of debarkation east of New York for immigrants, be they Irish or Italian or African, who arrived here and went to work at Sargent or Winchester or simply digging the Farmington Canal. en there's the Blue Mother. Since what was founded as the Collegiate School in Saybrook in 1701 relocated here 17 years later, savants have argued about whether Yale is New Haven's blessing or its curse. e wisest answer is: It's both blessing and curse. Before the turn of the 20th century Yale was a relatively minor fixture of a booming commercial hub — located squarely in the breast of its host city, but always a bit aloof. Not that there weren't occasional town-gown confrontations. In 1824 a five-day riot broke out aer it was discovered that Yale Medical School students had snatched a body from the West Haven ceme- tery for use as a cadaver. Following World War II, when manufacturing began its long decline and workers made a beeline for leafy suburbs such as Hamden and Branford, Yale and its prolifer- ating appendages (now including multiple professional schools and a hospital) assumed a mantle of not just intellectual and cultural authority, but economic import as well. A key inflection point in the New Haven-Yale relationship came in 1993, when Richard C. Levin became president of the univer- sity following the little-mourned reign of Benno C. Schmidt Jr., best known for not actually living in New Haven (a popular T-shirt of the time asked "Where's Benno?" e answer: living in Manhattan with his filmmaker wife.) An economist by training (during his two decades in office the university's endowment soared from $3 billion to more than $20 billion), Levin instinctively understood that Yale could not successfully compete for the best and brightest minds not just in the U.S., but across the globe (he would be horrified by the compar- ison, but both Richard Levin and Richard Nixon unlocked economic, intellectual and diplomatic doors to China) if New Haven remained a crime-ridden dump. Yale could no longer turn its back on its home city. "Yale, for its institutional self-interest, got rid of the moat," explains Bass. Levin's two-decade presidency coincides almost exactly with the mayoralty of John DeStefano Jr. (1994-2014). e son of a cop who majored in accounting at UConn, DeStefano had little in common with the patrician Levin — but both recognized the unmistakable inter- section of institutional self-interest in making New Haven more vital, habitable and attractive. So the pair became partners. "Levin and DeStefano, aer some rocky times, realized they were cut from the same cloth — they were both nuts-and-bolts, numbers-driv- en problem-solvers who knew how to develop a larger vision," Bass says. "ey had a great working relationship and it was really bene- ficial to both sides." Levin's vision was paid for in large part by the unprecedented success of the university's chief investment officer, David F. Sw- ensen, who managed the singular explosion of Yale's endowment from $3 billion to $25 billion by the time Levin departed Woodbridge Hall in 2014. "It's a false narrative to say that Yale was [always aloof from] New Haven," says Nemerson, pointing to the heyday of urban renewal under Mayor Richard C. Lee in the 1950s, 'The quality of competition in restaurant and retail businesses is way up, which is good for consumers, good for businesses, good for Yale.' - Yale School of Management professor Douglas Rae L I F T O F F A 2014 Yale grad who 'fell in love' with her adopted home, Smith represents a new generation of urban- dwellers who view New Haven as an ideal palette for community- building. Continued from previous page

• Cover