Author Archives: Alyssa Rosenberg

If my work in politics were ever rewarded with a single wish, it would be this: I never want to hear the phrase “special interests” again. The term is so completely meaningless and easily manipulated that it deserves to be purged, at least for the sake of clarity. In New Haven, rather than identifying stereotypical »

History repeats itself. For the second time in a half-century, we have a big-ideas mayor with a vision for a revitalized downtown. After a brief respite, Yale’s unions and the Democratic Party leaders are once again on uneasy terms. And in Ward 1, a candidate running as an independent is accusing a Democratic incumbent of »

Before we get old enough for death and taxes, there are a few certainties Yale students can count on. Frats will deluge us with party invitations. Classes that meet before noon will prove suspiciously difficult to wake up for. And New Haven politics will continue to be the best show in town. Yes, you read »

Normally, columnists on these pages save self-examination for the final issue of their senior year. They write farewells to their University, with all of its idiosyncrasies and charms, call for final reforms, and impart one last lesson to students who still have another year to make the most of their time here. But most of »

When the Ward 1 Democratic Committee meets tomorrow to nominate a candidate for alderman, it will be acting as more than the judge in a campus popularity contest. Though the Ward 1 alderman plays an important role in shaping the interactions between Yale students and the New Haven community during his or her time in »

I am not on financial aid. I work because I want to, not because I am required by Yale to contribute a certain amount of money to my education, or because my parents cannot pay the amount the University asks them for. I am extraordinarily fortunate. Nonetheless, I joined 14 other undergraduates who walked into »

Since 1989, five men have occupied the Ward 1 alderman’s seat. While the boundaries of the ward have since shifted along with the most pressing issues of the day, many of the basic challenges of the office have remained the same: building relationships and effective coalitions with 29 colleagues, mobilizing a constituency often more focused »

The 30 seats in the aldermanic chamber are occupied on the first and third Mondays of each month by a group of men and women who reflect the diversity of New Haven. They are black, white, Latino and Asian, young and old; they represent the palatial houses in Morris Cove and the churches in Fair »

This is the year, or at least it should be. 2004 had plenty of surprises. The Red Sox won the World Series after a sloppy mid-season. George W. Bush broke the Washington Redskins rule and got a second term in office. So why shouldn’t 2005 be the year that a small, East Coast state fond »

This week brought the bad news that Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc., one of the biotechnology companies that have been touted as a critical part of New Haven’s economic revitalization, has fired 18 employees. While Genaissance executives issued reassuring statements about the industry’s future in the city, their analysis of industry adjustments and corporate restructuring couldn’t obscure »

Tomorrow on Election Day, going to the polls in New Haven might seem anticlimactic. Connecticut will, barring an electoral miracle, go to John Kerry and John Edwards, Sen. Chris Dodd will be re-elected easily, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro is facing a nominal challenge from Richter Elser, whom she easily dispatched in 2002. But for »

Regardless of what you think of booty cams and drunken hookups, Toad’s Place set a new standard in tastelessness last Tuesday when it proceeded with the second of two performances by dance-hall artists who have been roundly condemned for their violently homophobic lyrics. Despite protests outside of both performances and a threatened boycott, Toad’s went »