Yurii Stasiuk, Contributing Photographer

In his teenage years, Frank Redente started dealing drugs with a gang in Fair Haven. Looking back, he says he could not imagine that one day he would become a politician. 

But after a “turnaround” in his life, his career in New Haven Public Schools, and community activism, Redente became the only challenger to oust an incumbent alder in New Haven in the 2023 election. 

Redente said he is led by childhood traumas and strives to help those who go through hard times like he once did. In his work as an alder, he said he hopes to address gun violence and drug use in New Haven, support its youth and bring infrastructure investments into Fair Haven, the heavily Latine neighborhood he believes was overlooked for a long time. 

“I never thought I’d be a politician. An alder? Me? Never,” Redente said. “I feel like I switched universes. I like to fight for the marginalized groups.”

A Fair Haven upbringing

Redente is the son of Frank Redente, Sr., who ran Farnam Neighborhood House, a local club and gymnasium that was popular among Fair Haven youth. 

Redente Jr. did not like staying in Farnam House. There, he was “Frank’s kid,” which he said put extra social pressure on him. He knew he was queer from an early age and living in a household where it was not safe to come out, he said he gravitated to the streets “to prove what a man [he] was.”

“Right around eighth grade, going into high school, I got involved with dealing drugs and gangs,” Redente said. “I wasn’t necessarily part of the solution around here, [but] very much a part of a problem.” 

He said that as a kid he was also bullied. His trauma, he said, led him to bad choices. His trauma, however, also guided his later work. 

Jimmy Flynn, a childhood friend, told the News that he knew Redente was going through personal problems but never knew much in detail. In 1992, Flynn was incarcerated but kept in touch with Redente. He was surprised when he learned Redente was getting into “a little trouble.”

Redente said that when he was around 18 years old, many of his friends were in prison. Redente got lucky, he said, and was not charged with serious crimes. Redente then got a part-time job at Fair Haven School, where he would spend the next 30 years of his life, starting as a security guard and becoming an outreach worker for the entire Fair Haven district.

Thirty years in New Haven Public Schools

“I never thought in a million years I would work at a school with kids,” Redente said. “But right away, when I started working in the school, people noticed that I was good at what I was doing as far as building relationships with the students.” 

Redente said he believes that as a result of his childhood trauma, he tries his best to understand students who misbehave and help them out. 

Redente was transferred to Edgewood Magnet School, where after two years as a security guard, he was promoted to a truant officer. In this role, he reached out to students with continued absences to bring them to school, connect them with mental health services and provide any other support needed. 

“He turned his life around. [It’s] a lot of people’s aspiration, but this guy is actually doing it,” Flynn said. 

Redente then moved back to Fair Haven School and became a youth development coordinator. In this position, he supports families and students in need. Oftentimes, he said, this means getting outside of school walls, “on the streets.” 

In public schools, he said he deals with children who suffer from traumas like he did. Many students, he said, are impacted by the violence in the community and come from poor families. Kids rely on him, Redente said, and that is what keeps him motivated to do his work. 

A year ago, Redente also became an official street outreach worker in Fair Haven, working with children at risk in all Fair Haven schools. 

Outside of school, Redente also worked with kids coaching basketball, which he said he sees as a tool to keep children “off the streets.” 

Over the years of work with children in New Haven, he lost many of them. On his arm, Redente has over 50 names tattooed — all teenagers and youth he knew who died prematurely, some because of cancer or asthma, but most because of gun violence. This week, he added a couple of fresh names on his shoulder. 

“I’ve had to console too many mothers and grandmothers who have lost their kids,” Redente said. 

On the campaign trail

In New Haven, incumbents rarely lose elections. Redente is the first candidate to unseat an incumbent alder since 2015, and those challengers were supported by Yale’s politically powerful UNITE HERE unions.

In this year’s Ward 15 election, incumbent Ernie Santiago, who had been an alderman for 12 years, ran for reelection with endorsements from Mayor Justin Elicker, Rep. Rosa DeLauro and the influential Local 34 – UNITE HERE union. 

Redente recalled that he first thought of running when his neighbor built an illegal car business in his backyard, which constantly emitted noise. After talking with many officials, he said, he was able to get the city to file a cease-and-desist order. Getting “the wheels of justice moving in this city” motivated him, but nowhere in this process did his then-alder Santiago respond to these issues, according to Redente. 

“My neighborhood was deteriorating,” Redente said. “Nobody else was stepping up year after year. This guy was just handed the alder position because nobody ran against him.”

Santiago did not respond to a request for comment. In an interview with New Haven Independent last summer, after he failed to secure the endorsement of the Democratic Town Committee, Santiago said that ​“communications broke down between [him] and [his] constituents.” He attributed it to his busy schedule serving on multiple city boards and alder committees.

Another Fair Haven Alder, Sarah Miller ’03, told the News that Ward 15, which borders her own Ward 14, had not had an active representation for years, and a lot of people had been complaining to her about Santiago’s unresponsiveness. 

When she learned that Redente, whom she knew was a person ready to work, she publicly supported him and helped him with his campaign. 

Both Miller and Flynn said that everyone in the neighborhood knew Redente. Miller recalled that when she was canvassing for his campaign and got turned away at one door, she showed Redente’s campaign handout with his picture, and it changed the attitude of that resident. 

Part of his local fame is because of his father’s work, Redente said. Another part is his active outreach work in the community and work with children in Fair Haven public schools, according to Miller. 

Flynn, who got out of prison through a community service program last May and now works with New Haven Rising, told the News that Redente supported him throughout the whole process of reentry. Flynn, seeing how Redente helped him and others in the community, decided to support his campaign. 

“He believes in his community, he’s invested in his community,” Flynn said. According to him, Redente started taking calls and requests from the community even before he got elected. 

Redente gathered a group of Fair Haven residents with whom he said he knocked on over a thousand doors in his neighborhood, another explanation for electoral success. According to Redente, he was proud to increase the voter turnout in a neighborhood that usually votes the least in New Haven. 

Last year, on Sept. 12, Redente won 64 percent of the ward’s votes in the Democratic primary, becoming the party’s nominee. During the general election, he ran unopposed and was inaugurated into the position along with 29 colleagues in January. 

Two months in an aldermanic chamber

Although Redente defeated an opponent whom many of his current colleagues had endorsed, he said that they warmly welcomed him, and he had “great” conversations with the Mayor and other alders.  

“Politics is really new to him, and what I’ve appreciated is that he asked a lot of questions, and he’s really trying to learn the ropes,” Miller said. 

In a new seat, Redente cooperates closely with Miller and another newcomer from Fair Haven, Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith ’14. The three are now building up a community management team to address Fair Haven’s issues. 

Redente sits on the Community Development, Education and Youth & Youth Services committees and said he was excited to recently vote on approving the creation of 150 affordable housing units during his first committee meeting in early February. 

While in office, he also wants to address gun violence and drug use, he said. Redente said that he first wants to facilitate the agreement on “a fair” police union contract. Over-policing is not good, he said, but he wants to see “well-trained, culturally competent police officers with secure jobs, which don’t make them stressed out.” Addressing shortages in the force will help police officers build stronger relationships with communities, he believes.

“I’m a former gang member,” Redente said. “I’ve never in a million years thought I would advocate for the police.”

Another priority for him is bringing infrastructure investments to Fair Haven, starting with fixing sidewalks, many of which have not been renewed in decades. “Broken windows,” underdeveloped infrastructure in his neighborhood, bring crime and violence, he said, and he wants to fix it. 

So far, he has also recruited Manuel Camacho, a student at Southern Connecticut State University, to serve as a co-chair for Ward 15 and join Redente’s team. 

“He told everyone and was very honest about it: “I don’t like politics. The reason I am doing this is because I care about people,” Camacho said of Redente. “That’s the type of people we should elect.”

The next alder elections will be held in 2025.