5/22/2018 Bruce Alexander, who strengthened town-gown bonds, to retire - New Haven Register Bruce Alexander, who strengthened town gown bonds, to retire By Ed Stannard Updated 8:03 pm, Friday, May 4, 2018 IMAGE 1 OF 12 Bruce Alexander, Yale University vice president for New Haven and state affairs, speaks at a press conference at Yale in 2016 about a bill that would have taxed Yale s nonprofit tax exempt properties. NEW HAVEN The length of his official title gives a hint of the impact that Bruce Alexander has had on Yale University and his adopted city of New Haven. Alexander, who turns 75 this month, will retire in June after 20 years as vice president and director of the Office of New Haven and State Affairs and Campus Development. Since returning to his alma mater he graduated in 1965 Alexander has been the guiding force behind initiatives that have aided residents of Greater New Haven financially and boosted the city s economy. In a remarkable twenty years of service to this university, Bruce has 1/5
5/22/2018 Bruce Alexander, who strengthened town-gown bonds, to retire - New Haven Register Bruce Alexander talks Yale c played a major role in the revitalization of New Haven, helped shape and steward our campus, and built valuable partnerships with local and state communities, Yale President Peter Salovey wrote to the Yale community in announcing Alexander s retirement. He has worked collaboratively with partners in local and state government, as well as community leaders and organizations, to bring jobs, resources, and greater prosperity to the city of New Haven, Salovey wrote. Thanks to Bruce s leadership, Yale and New Haven are enjoying the benefits of careful planning and thoughtful investments in our community and its people. Among the initiatives in which Alexander has played a role are New Haven Promise, which gives scholarships to city students; a pledge by Yale to hire 1,000 New Haven residents by 2019 as part of New Haven Works; the expansion of Yale College, with two new residential colleges opening this year, adding 400 undergraduates to the student body; bringing in national brands, including Apple and L.L. Bean, to anchor the downtown retail scene; and the purchase of the former Bayer property in West Haven and Orange, turning the 136-acre West Campus into a hub of scientific research, as well as a home for the Yale School of Nursing. What we ve tried to do over the last several decades is create partnerships, Alexander said Friday. Partnerships with the city, with the Yale unions, with the neighbors around the university partnerships that hopefully benefited everyone. Yale this year made more than $8.7 million in voluntary payments to the city to account for the tax-exempt status of its campus, for a total of $116 million since 1991, according to Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart. Among other initiatives have been improvements in the Dixwell neighborhood, expanding Scantlebury Park and building the Rose Center, which houses the Yale Police Department and the Dixwell-Yale Community Learning Center, which includes a computer facility [that] Yale students and neighborhood kids use and it s also used by New Haven Reads, Alexander said. New Haven Reads, where city children gain in literacy and a love of books, is a more personal legacy for Alexander. His late wife, Christine Alexander, founded the organization in 2001 and it now more than 350 volunteers serve more than 500 children in three locations. Bruce Alexander has been heavily involved in the organization as well. On April 22, the corner of Bristol and Ashmun streets, where the original New Haven Reads is located, was named for Christine Alexander, who died of cancer in 2011. 2/5
We both loved being in the neighborhoods, Bruce Alexander said. Chris and I had friends in Dixwell and Newhallville. My grandfather was an Italian immigrant. I loved being in Wooster Square for that reason. Alexander, who will continue at Yale on a part-time basis, said it was important to him that Yale was listening and making sure the concerns of our neighbors were heard whenever the university made a decision that would affect the community. I respect our neighbors and I care about what they think of Yale, he said. These community connections were very important to me and I enjoyed them all. Yale has also enlarged its presence near the Dixwell neighborhood with the building of Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin colleges, which connect Science Hill and Science Park. Stabilizing the city s economy To Alexander, bringing in retail stores to its properties, concentrated on Broadway and Chapel Street, will help the city weather the economic difficulties the state faces major deficits and cuts aid to municipalities. Yale is one of the city s largest taxpayers, based on its noneducational properties. While Yale students, faculty and staff spend thousands of dollars downtown, students leave town for five months of the year, Alexander said. That means that those local tenants were struggling to succeed. Seeding in major anchors such as Apple and the soon-to-open L.L. Bean has a very, very positive effect in supporting our majority of local merchants. There are scores, if not hundreds of properties in the city of New Haven beyond The Shops at Yale, so there is plenty of opportunity for all kinds of merchants at all price points to thrive in our community if they serve their customers well. Fulfilling promises Will Clark, chief operating officer of the New Haven Public Schools, said Alexander shares credit for New Haven Promise with former Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo and former Mayor John DeStefano Jr. but said Bruce was clearly engaged with that Bruce was certainly at the table and got the funding for that. Yale is a cornerstone partner along with the Community Foundation [for Greater New Haven]. New Haven Promise has granted scholarships to 201 city students since 2014 to attend a public state college or university. 3/5
Alexander said that while we were all involved in creating this, including [former Yale President] Rick Levin, this is something that Peter [Salovey] gives a lot of personal attention to through his chairmanship of the board. A strong school system is essential to the socioeconomic mix that creates a healthy city and we don t want people leaving New Haven for the suburbs in order to find a school that satisfies them, Alexander said. Promise is one of the important tools by which New Haven is strengthening the New Haven school system. The Yale Homebuyer Program, which began before Levin hired Alexander to launch the Office of New Haven and State Affairs in 1998, has expanded into most of the city, helping subsidize mortgages for Yale employees 1,221 so far. Alexander, who lives in the East Rock neighborhood, returned to Yale after retiring in 1996 from the Rouse Co., where he helped create Harborplace in Baltimore and the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, bolstering the economies and tourism of those cities. Launching Alexander s office was the signal of a commitment by the university to the city and to the state, he said. Up to that point in its history it had not thought of itself in those terms, that they could focus in a very specific, thoughtful approach and that was why the position was created. Yale was an institution that helped educate me, so it had personal meaning for me, he said. I was a financial aid student here, so it was important on a personal level to come back and do that. Michael Morand, now communications director for the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, helped Alexander launch the Office of New Haven and State Affairs in 1998. He said of Alexander, Some people get stuck in the weeds; some get lost in the clouds. Bruce is a rare leader who can sweat the details and keep the big picture in mind at all times. The difference he has made in building a stronger New Haven is both extensive and lasting. Mayor Toni Harp said in an email that Alexander s longstanding presence and steady hand helped steer the city onto its present course, which is characterized by productive town-gown relations and a vibrant, growing, local economy. The city is better for Bruce s commitment to these goals. 4/5
Bruce Alexander s New Haven years reflect the vision, innovation, and follow-though of an effective community leader on behalf of all city residents, I wish him good health and contentment as his next chapter unfolds. Contact Ed Stannard at edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com or 203-680-9382. 2018 Hearst Communications, Inc. 5/5