New London. Photo courtesy of Sophia Angele-Kuehn.
I was headed toward the the “Big House” on 17 Granite Street. A couple weeks earlier, the assistant director of Conn’s Arboretum Maggie Redfern forwarded me a flyer for a Meet-and-Greet with a friend of hers: a New London mayoral candidate, Frida Berrigan from the Green Party.
From the New London Train Station where the Camel Van had dropped me off, it was a fifteen-minute trek, which involved taking pictures of the pretty-yet-deserted State Street and stopping to look inside the equally empty Public Library of New London. I had just left the downtown area and passed the Williams Memorial Park to wait at a pedestrian crossing when a car slowed down. “Do you need a ride?”
I pretended to not hear, crossing my arms and staring at the frozen traffic light. I heard the car slow down and pull over behind me, so I darted across the street.
Feeling confused and exposed outside of the Connecticut College bubble that had cushioned me the past three years, I walked up the steep steps to the colossal Italianate Victorian house and through its open doors. I was greeted with a smile and an outstretched hand. “Hi, I’m Kris. Are you here for the Meet & Greet?” Kris Wraight, the campaign manager for Frida Berrigan, was sporting an emerald green t-shirt with “FRIDA: A New Vision for New London” in black letters with a print of Frida. Kris pointed out a bowl of pins and green bumper stickers with the same design, which guests could help themselves to. “If you have any questions, just let me know.”
The gathering was held in the wood-paneled dining hall and featured a table of cheese and crackers, with comfortable armchairs distributed around the perimeter. With an attendance of roughly thirty residents, the atmosphere was casual and relaxed, with the slightly awkward tinge that comes with mingling with strangers.
I eventually made my way to a comfortable-looking couch in front of table of handouts. There was a typed list of goals Berrigan hopes to accomplish as Mayor, Mail-In Voter Registration forms, and light blue strips of paper for us to write what we love about New London and what we want to see changed in New London. I immediately scrawled, “Better public transportation system from Conn Coll to New London.” Later, I noticed on the goals sheet that Berrigan already noticed the lack of pedestrian activity in her city. She writes, “Improve our public transportation system and increase ridership by repairing and maintaining bus shelters, posting information about bus schedules, and disseminating information about the benefits of public transportation.”
Eventually, the homeowner himself plopped down on the sofa beside me, exhausted from preparing for the event since 6 am. Jamie Haynes the Third lives with his wife Lourdes and runs a successful Airbnb out of the Big House. To my left on the sofa was the granddaughter of Mary Foulke Morrisson herself – a leader of the Women’s Suffrage movement and in the founding of the nation’s first settlement house Hull House in Chicago – whom Morrisson House is named after.
The room went silent as Berrigan began her speech, after first thanking the homeowners for the care that they put into restoring the historic house: “It didn’t look like this when they bought it. They invested in it, they loved it, and they made all of this beauty visible. And it’s kind of a lovely metaphor of how we want to be living in our city, and how we want to be taking care of our home.
“My name is Frida, Frida Berrigan. I’m your neighbor, and I’m running for Mayor for the City of New London. And I think that at a time when the national news is almost uniformly ‘bad,’ the New London Green Party is collecting, is conveying, and is amplifying the good ideas, the good visions, and the good solutions for our small and dynamic, our diverse and youthful, and historic and struggling city. We are growing Green, New London is growing Green.” According to their website, New London’s Green Party was established in 2001, and their purpose is to “run to win, but also use the opportunity to shed light on important issues, bring new and creative viewpoints for public consideration, and promote policies that support the Green Party values of democracy, peace, social justice, and community-based economics.”
Berrigan has three young children and is both a homeowner on Connecticut Avenue and a community gardener. She writes regularly for the online magazine TomDispatch.com, whose tagline is “a regular antidote to the mainstream media.” Before Berrigan’s speech, Haynes made it a point to inform me while we were chatting that Berrigan is also the daughter of two notable activists: the late Philip Berrigan was a veteran of WWII and a Catholic priest who had been repeatedly imprisoned for his actions against public authority, such as participating in sit-ins and bus boycotts during the Civil Rights Movement, and Elizabeth McAlister is a former nun and art history instructor at Marymount College who joined peace demonstrations and prayer vigils. Frida is their eldest child.
When Berrigan and Kris asked for comments and questions, New London resident Mirna Martinez raised her hand. “I get looked at for the walking that I do sometimes. I’ve been told, of course, ‘Do you need a ride, do you need a ride? … Whether it’s trees that have more shade, whether there are more benches for buses, or tables in the downtown for people to sit and lounge at … things that make people congregate, that’s an important thing for me.” I was surprised by how alike Mirna’s situation was to mine. Perhaps that was the reason why I was offered a ride, due to a lack of visible public transportation.
Photo courtesy of Frida for Mayor Facebook
More money for the school system and a denser city population also got a lot of nods. A woman named Libby spoke on how companies tell their workers to not live in New London, but to go to Old Lyme. Yet her friend who still lives by the beach goes around saying, “This is great! The downtown’s great … They’re crazy, but this is what they’re telling people.”
Another woman added, “But then there were the Conn College kids. Bring them in! Let them come into town.”
As I was ready to leave, I ran into Robert Stuller, treasurer of New London Greens, who promptly handed me Mail-In Registration Forms, “for your friends.” I said goodbye to Haynes, who shook my hand: “You and your friends are welcome to come anytime.” I smiled, a sudden wave of comfort banishing the unease I had felt earlier traveling outside of Connecticut College. I had found a home again in the Big House. My uprootedness had found ground again.
I recalled a blurb from Berrigan’s infographic as I walked back downtown, the sun casting soft rosy gold light over roofs: “I believe in people, in connection, in community. Our physical and political spaces need to be accessible to all.” So what can we do? “Trees, trees, trees! New London should be as green as it is gold. Plant more trees.” •
