On Monday June 3rd, the New Haven Board of Aldermen will vote on whether or not to sell parts of Wall Street, High Street and Broadway to Yale University. For twenty years, Yale has leased these streets for practically nothing and offered to buy them after the city wanted to raise their rent in order to help cover its deficit.

There are three major problems with this Sale. First, if they buy these streets, Yale, the second wealthiest university in the world, with an $18 Billion endowment, will never again have to pay for its use of space downtown in one of the poorest cities in Northeast. Yale pays no property taxes on its academic land (which these blocks
would be if Yale bought them, as Yale currently uses them for classroom and library space) and makes only a $8 million “voluntary contribution” to the community – a pittance compared with its real wealth and landholdings. Renting rather than owning land is the only way that Yale will be forced to make a serious contribution to the city for the land on which the university operates.

Second, Yale is already the largest private landholder in New Haven and, according to the CT Center for a New Economy’s 2011 report “A Renaissance for All of Us,” is the
leading driver of gentrification and other forms of economic development that leave out most of this city’s residents.

Finally, if Yale buys these streets, it will put traffic control and other public regulations in the hands of the Yale Police. New Haven’s streets should be policed by an agency that is accountable to all of us, not just the wealthy few. New Haven Police Department has a Civilian Review Board to monitor police abuse, and although the CRB is not very effective, the community is currently working to improve and strengthen the CRB.