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44 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 Helping Greater New Haven Businesses Grow for Over 80 Years Attorneys and Counselors at Law www.berchemmoses.com Milford 75 Broad Street Milford, CT 06460 Phone: 203-783-1200 Westport 1221 Post Road East Westport, CT 06880 Phone: 203-227-9545 We welcome the opportunity to address your legal concerns, whatever their complexity. • Corporate/Business Law • Labor & Employment • Litigation • Commercial Real Estate • Land Use • Urban & Economic Development As our legal family and facilities have grown, so has our commitment to the Greater New Haven community. Berchem Moses PC o‹ers clients a wide variety of services including: columnist with the Manchester Journal Inquirer, in July wrote about "smug, self-righteous, polit- ically correct New Haven, where it takes only minutes to assemble a rally denouncing President Trump, supporting illegal immigration, accusing someone of racism, or condemning freethinkers, pre- sumes to run the world while it can't even take care of itself." Powell was referring to the latest city fiscal emergency — a $30 mil- lion budget deficit and the highest per-capita municipal debt in state, totaling $2 billion. is despite having just raised property taxes by a whopping 11 percent. And therein lies the rub: No matter how many people of means, be they millennial or baby-boomer, that the city manages to lure here, it still must find ways to care for its critical mass of critically poor people. And their numbers are growing, too. Cities play two very different and oen-conflicting roles in contemporary American society — New Haven is no different. ey function as economic, social and cultural centers for comparatively educated and affluent people who don't choose to cloister themselves behind suburban picket fences. But they also function as warehouses for poor people who are unwel- come elsewhere. "We exist in a state that has a very hard time [providing] afford- able housing, community services and accepting a diverse population in many of its towns," explains Nemerson, "and would prefer for those people, who do not have a lot of income or a lot of options, not to live in the suburbs or the in- ner-ring towns, but to live in a few census tracts" in the state's urban centers. at makes for "a huge concentration of poverty in just a few places," he adds. Including New Haven. Of dewy-eyed college and pan- LIFTOFF Continued from page 17 handlers loitering at downtown bus stops, "ese are two very different worlds," Nemerson says. "Some- times they clash. We have one group that's in office buildings on Church Street, across from another group who are wandering through the Green. And these two worlds come together" in downtown New Haven. "Sometimes they clash." The Way Forward Will the Elm City's positive trajectory continue, or will it sink back down in despairing doldrums of poverty, despair and indifference? No one knows, of course, but the optimism has never been brighter. Restaurants and retail are flourish- ing. "e quality of competition in restaurant and retail businesses is way up, which is good for consum- ers, good for businesses, good for Yale," says Doug Rae. For example, New Haven is the smallest city with an Apple store. Once-sketchy Broadway now rivals Harvard Square or Princeton's Nassau Street for vitality, prosperity and even a soupçon of chic. Beyond shopping and culture, "ere's so much entrepreneur- ial spirit," observes Bass. A spirit fueled by 20-somethings like Smith who are ready and willing to put down stakes and make a difference in their adopted city. New Haven is even attracting mid-career professionals lured by its livable scale and affordability compared to its big-city bookends to the north and west. Doug Rae's wife, D. Ellen Shu- man, worked with David Swensen managing the phenomenal growth of Yale's endowment. In 2013 Shu- man started her own firm, Edgehill Endowment Partners, to manage the investment portfolios of other colleges and foundations (mini- mum portfolio size: $100 million). e company has been recruit- ing and bringing financial profes- sionals from Virginia, Maryland, New York, Boston and elsewhere to work with Schuman in New Haven. "at's a success story, and there Continued on next page