NewHavenBIZ

n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m O c t o b e r 2 0 1 8 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 17 which became a national model (albeit a flawed one) for American cities in the wake of the post-World War II flight to the suburbs. "What Yale did not do up until the Rick Levin era was to buy com- mercial real estate and establish a separate, non-academic part of Yale [University Properties, Yale commercial real-estate arm] that was running commercial retail and restaurants in downtown New Haven," said Nemerson. Spare nickels and dimes from the Swensen billions enabled the university to pick up the pieces of developer Joel Schiavone's College/Chapel Street empire for pennies on the dollar. at process was masterminded and executed by Bruce Alexander, the former Rouse Corp. executive who returned to New Haven to fill a new office and pivotal role for his alma mater: vice president of New Haven and state affairs. "e purchase of the Joel Schiavone empire and the purchase of all the [commercial] buildings on Broadway fundamentally changed both Yale and New Haven," says Nemerson. "Now you had a very skilled retail manager with very deep pockets that was able to operate independently of David Swensen to buy and wheel and deal." One negative consequence of Yale's assumption of an increasingly aggressive role in commercial real estate was that many mom-and- pop retailers like Cutler's Records and eateries like the late, lamented Yankee Doodle were simply priced out of the marketplace, supplanted by national chains like Patagonia and L.L. Bean. "You can disagree with many of the things Bruce did or the ways he did them," Nemerson says. "But you fundamentally have to ap- plaud what he was able to create: a downtown for a little city — that should by rights be more like Worcester or Springfield — that could legitimately compare itself to Cambridge and Princeton." Kids These Days Where the interests of Yale and its host city intersect is not solely in the knowledge economy, or East Rock regentrification, or up- scale retailers selling shiny baubles on Broadway, but in people. People like Caroline Smith, a 2014 Yale grad who spent summers and made friends here, rapidly becoming a passionate stakeholder in her adopted city. Most significantly, unlike most of her classmates who following commencement traditionally have beaten a path to Wall Street or Washington, she stayed here. Smith, co-founder and co-di- rector (with Margaret Lee) of Collab, a state-funded incubator ("accelerator," she calls it) for entrepreneurs, is emblematic of a new generation of activists, artists and entrepreneurs, most from outside of Connecticut, who straddle the town-gown divide. "I fell in love with New Haven as soon as I came here" in 2010, Smith recounts. "It was the first city I had ever understood as being a community. And the real reason why is the people here. ey say New Haven is the 'great- est small city in America,' and the reason why is that there are people working every day to make it greater." People like the 25-year-old Smith, whose "community involvement" began literally from the ground up — picking up trash from sidewalks on her early-morning runs and shoveling snow for neighbors unable to do it for themselves. Generations of Yale students have been implicitly or explicitly warned to stay safely inside their ivied walls. "But I think that's changing," says Smith. During her freshmen orientation, "e only [part] that was about New Haven was the 'safety' session where they taught you how to protect yourself. ree years ago [Yale] changed that safety session to a session called 'Welcome to New Haven.' at's just one effort to change the narrative and change the language Yale uses [about] New Haven." Smith was one of the orga- nizers of that effort. Now, she says, "Students are more interested in being involved in New Haven; it's cooler to be involved in New Haven." And to stay here — not just during summers, but when it's time to leave the day aer commencement. "When I graduated I really wanted to stay in New Haven, but I didn't know how," she recounts. "ere weren't a lot of pathways" to a meaningful career. Smith found one through Ben Berkowitz, found- er of the tech startup SeeClickFix, who eventually offered Smith a job as its marketing head and de facto Yale liaison. Part of that mission was to "create more defined and clear pathways for students who love [New Haven] to stay here and create a livelihood here," she says. One of Smith's favorite metrics to illustrate this is the number of Yale College grads who stay here following graduation to work in non-Yale-affiliated jobs. For the Class of 2016, she says, that number was two percent. Two years later, that figure had doubled to four percent. at's 44 students in a graduating class of just over 1,000. A statistician would call that statistically insignificant. Smith calls it love. "If we can create ways for Yale students to learn how they can feel valuable here, have friendships and sustain themselves, that's good," Smith says. "And if we can do that in a way that's also healthy for New Haven and maintains the integrity of this place — I think that's the dream." Real City, Real Life For every Caroline Smith, whose 1,000-watt optimism may light the way forward, New Haven has its naysayers. Some things never change. Chris Powell, curmudgeonly A critical turning point in the city's history, says editor Bass, took place when Yale 'got rid of the moat.' 'We are reaching a critical mass with our new boutique hotels, with restaurants and music.' L I F T O F F Continued on page 44

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