Courtesy of Kiana Flores

For Ward 1 Alder Kiana Flores ’25.5, a born-and-bred New Havener, starting out at Yale was “pretty rough,” she told the News earlier this month.

“It didn’t really feel like I had a place where I found my people just yet. Trying to establish myself at Yale, I actually think I distanced myself a little bit from being involved in New Haven things,” Flores said.

Flores, a political science major, told the News that she was focused on academics for most of her first year at Yale. The back corner of the Pierson College library’s “iconic rotunda” was her study spot of choice, she said.

But Flores never truly stepped away from New Haven. Although she may not have been as active as she had been during her years at Cooperative Arts & Humanities Magnet School — when the New Haven Climate Movement, whose youth branch she co-founded, was her “number one priority” — she remained engaged in New Haven politics.

In her first semester, Flores interned for Eli Sabin ’22 LAW ’26, the Ward 1 alder at the time, as he campaigned to represent Ward 7. Later that year, she ran for Ward 1 Democratic Town Committee co-chair. In that role, she helped the next Ward 1 Alder Alex Guzhnay gather local opinions on city policy, Flores said.

Flores attributes much of her recent work in local politics to “the funny ways that connections happen at Yale,” as she put it — from applying to work with Sabin after joining a Yale College Democrats GroupMe chat to taking former Mayor John DeStefano’s political science seminar with Guzhnay.

Asked what her biggest accomplishment as alder has been thus far, Flores brought up her constituent relations work on Ward 1’s “tenants issue” in early 2024, the very beginning of her term. Tenants of a building on Orange Street organized the Emerson Tenants Union in response to deferred maintenance concerns; Flores said she played a mediating role to help the group of constituents.

“It was both a challenge and the most worthwhile experience,” she said. “I got familiar with the Fair Rent Commission, and started getting more information about housing rights, which was something that I ran on and that I was very interested in learning a lot more about.”

Now, Flores said, the biggest challenge facing New Haven is its status as a sanctuary city, as the Trump administration looks to target cities that do not bolster federal immigration enforcement.

“The really strange place that we’re in with the federal government on immigration has had a lot of people uneasy — especially myself, as someone who comes from an immigrant family. There’s just a lot of uncertainty,” she said.

Flores, who serves on the Board of Alders’ City Services and Environmental Policy Committee, is also concerned about New Haven’s reliance on federal grants, some of which are now in jeopardy.

So far, according to Mayor Justin Elicker, seven such grants — which fund climate and health initiatives, among others — have been impacted by President Donald Trump’s executive actions. Elicker told the News this month that the Trump administration had frozen or suspended a total of $27 million in federal aid to New Haven.

But Flores also said she is excited to see the results of federal investments that the city has received in the past few years. Several federal grants went to infrastructure projects that will include her downtown ward, like the pedestrianization of a section of High Street, safety upgrades to Chapel Street and the creation of a new Bus Rapid Transit system.

In the past year, Flores had to balance her Board of Alders duties with her job as a first-year counselor, or FroCo. She dismissed the idea that the two time-intensive roles might hinder one another, saying they were “very complementary to each other.”

She added, “My frosh will stop me in the middle of the road and be like, ‘Oh, the honorable Alder Flores.’”

A fight for the seat Flores will leave vacant lies on the horizon. For the first time since 2015, Ward 1’s Democratic primary is contested. To date, two candidates are vying for the nomination: Jake Siesel ’27, from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rhea McTiernan Huge ’27 — a New Havener and a current Ward 1 Democratic co-chair. On Monday, May 12, Flores told the News that she endorsed McTiernan Huge’s campaign.

“Being able to say, ‘I actually know about the city because I was born and raised here,’ adds a little bit more weight to the position,” Flores said.

Andrea Chow ’25, a close friend of Flores, agrees.

“Yale and New Haven are indescribably lucky to have Kiana,” Chow wrote to the News. “Seeing how her closeness to New Haven defined her role as alder gives me the sense that Ward 1 should always be represented by a New Havener.”

Siesel, meanwhile, told the News in April that his position as a relative newcomer to New Haven will push him to “engage individuals from across the city” and “develop a platform that works for all.”

Flores will participate in commencement ceremonies this weekend but will not officially graduate until December — coinciding with the end of her two-year term as alder. After graduating, Flores said she plans to get a local job in the legal or social services sphere, pursue a graduate degree in social work and eventually go to law school.

“I would love to stay in New Haven, if possible,” Flores said. “People tell me, ‘Oh, New Haven’s not fun, and there’s nothing to do,’ and I think the complete opposite — every day I feel like I have a new experience in this city.”

Ward 1 has 4,641 residents, according to data from the 2020 Census.