A changing palette
Nonwhite population in Derby has nearly doubled since 1990
By EDWARD J. CROWDER
ecrowder@ctpost.com
DERBY — Not so long ago, Hortencia Albán was the proprietor of a small general store in hard pursuit of the American Dream.
The problem was, that store was in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where a sodden economy and rampant inflation conspired to foil her diligence. She earned $90 a month. It was too little.
"It is very difficult to live in my country," Albán said.
So, in 1995 she packed up and moved to Derby, where her son had relocated two years before, along with assorted nephews and a niece.
She found jobs, family and a growing Ecuadorian community to make her feel at home.
Albán is one of dozens of Ecuadorians who have made Derby their home and contribute to the growing diversity of the state’s smallest city.
Their presence is reflected in the latest headcount from the U.S. Census Bureau, which depicts a blossoming Hispanic community here.
Hispanics account for 950 of Derby’s 12,391 residents, or 7.7 percent of its population. Their numbers have nearly doubled since the 1990 census, which found 539 Hispanics, or 4.4 percent of the total.
The city’s population growth has been static for decades. It locked in at about 12,000 around 1950 after decades of industry-fueled growth. Population grew over the past decade at 1.6 percent — from 12,199 in 1990 —about half the state’s growth rate.
But the city’s composition is in flux as its inexpensive housing, proximity to jobs and central location lure newcomers from elsewhere in the state, nation and world.
Centuries of change
Two centuries ago Derby was a classic New England river port, solidly Protestant and Anglo-Saxon.
On Sept. 10, 1833, a battered sloop named The Guide landed at Derby Dock on the Housatonic River and changed that for good.
Four men — John Phelan, William Foley, John O’Conners and Matthew Kellady — disembarked at the end of a long cross-Atlantic journey.
They were Derby’s first recorded Irish immigrants and hundreds more were at their heels. By 1845, the city’s first Catholic church, St. Mary’s, was being built.
A Polish church, St. Michael’s, was under way by 1875, reflecting the arrival of the next of what would become wave after wave of immigrants seeking work in the teeming industry along the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers.
The first Italians — now among Derby’s predominant ethnic groups — arrived around 1880. They came shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukrainian immigrants.
Many of the factories long ago boarded up, as manufacturers headed for greener pastures elsewhere in America. But many current residents still trace their roots to their immigrant ancestors.
They still form the core of the community. According to the census, the city is predominantly white — 90.1 percent, compared with 81.6 percent statewide.
But since 1990, the percentage of nonwhite residents has nearly doubled — from 5.1 percent to 9.9 percent.
The race data exclude Hispanics, an ethnic group who may consider their race white, black or whatever applies.
Among the racial groups that posted the biggest gains since 1990 were Asians, whose ranks more than doubled from 94 to 215. Within that category were strong increases in Asian Indians and Chinese residents.
African-Americans also strengthened their foothold in Derby. The city gained 148 African-Americans over the decade; they numbered 449 in the latest census.
That level of diversity was unknown when those first Irish immigrants arrived in 1833.
"A son of Erin [Ireland] at that time was rather a curiosity for the denizens of the town," historian Ambrose Beardsley wrote in 1880.
Melting pot
Pablo Barriga’s parents might have felt similarly like pioneers when they landed in Derby in 1965.
They had left their native Ecuador and arrived by way of New York. Barriga’s father had taken a job as a welder at Farrel Corp., which then had plants in Derby and Ansonia.
"We were probably one of the first families," Barriga said. "There weren’t very many Hispanics."
That wasn’t true for long.
Brothers followed sisters who had moved here; friends followed friends. In the generation since the Barrigas arrived, Ecuadorians have become a visible ethnic group here.
"You bring family members. People that know you from Ecuador would come," said Barriga, 35.
Barriga is U.S.-born and a Derbyite. He’s raising three kids, works for SNET and is involved with the local Democratic Party. He said he has little time to get involved with the Ecuadorian community.
"I’ve got my own family, my own job, my own life," he said. "Just keeping in touch with them is not commonplace."
As the immigrants of yesteryear fade into the American melting pot, new arrivals add dashes of spice to the city’s cultural stew.
Linda Romano teaches English as a Second Language in the Derby schools and gets a first-hand look at the new neighbors.
"We are finding a definite increase in the South American population," she said.
Some come from Ecuador and Colombia. Others are from elsewhere in Latin America, Costa Rica and Mexico, she said. And that’s just the start.
Her class last year included students from nearly a dozen countries, among them Albania, Croatia, Egypt, Poland and from shards of the former Yugoslav Republic: Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia.
"They come here because they have families and there’s work," Romano said. "Parents want their kids to go to school."
Wojtek Weglarz, 17, left Poland earlier this year to join his father, who has lived here more than a decade.
"I’m going to high school. After high school, maybe college," said Weglarz, who said there are more jobs here than in Poland, where his mother lives.
Shifting opportunities
Inexpensive housing and proximity to employment are some of the reasons the city is attractive — not just to immigrants, but to others who want opportunity and affordability, local officials say.
Industrial stalwarts such as Farrel Corp., whose Derby plant was shuttered in 1997, no longer employ Valley residents by the hundreds.
But Derby is a short hop from job-rich business districts and suburbs of three of the state’s largest cities, Bridgeport, New Haven and Waterbury, said Richard Eigen, executive director of the Valley Regional Planning Agency.
And it’s becoming a regional retail hub, he said. The recently built Home Depot and Wal-Mart stores provide hundreds of jobs and serve consumers from across the Valley.
"Derby is the smallest town [by area] in the state and it’s one of the biggest for retail sales," Eigen said.
The city in 2000 offered 1,390 retail jobs, according to the state Department of Labor. Manufacturing employment in Derby was only 580, the state agency reported.
Inexpensive housing is another draw.
The median housing price here in 1999 was $103,500, according to the state Department of Economic and Community Development, which had no more recent figures.
That’s a discount of 31 percent from the statewide median price of $149,900 that same year, the state agency reported.
Median income in Derby lags the region and state. It was $16,819 in 1998, compared with $17,666 in New Haven County and $20,189 statewide, the same state agency reported. No more recent figures were available.
"You can get out of Bridgeport and afford something in Derby," Eigen said.
Facing change
Unfortunately, that "something" in Derby may not be top-quality — or even close.
"The sad part is, what is a step up coming out of the inner city may really not be a healthy living condition," Mayor Marc Garofalo said.
Derby’s industrial past has been boon and burden — mostly the latter as far as housing goes.
Much of the housing stock was built in the early part of the last century for factory workers. In many cases, it’s substandard, Garofalo said.
To improve conditions, the city has tightened anti-blight laws and recently hired a full-time fire marshal to police fire code violations.
The city has seen limited development of new, expensive housing, Garofalo said. "Derby’s 90 percent developed," he said.
An exception is the 64-home Cornfield Associates development off Route 34. It sold out last year, with homes commanding up to $295,000, Garofalo said. A smaller 17-lot development, Hidden Woods, is under way off Ida and Albert avenues.
The city also plans a massive downtown redevelopment project that would create 300 new housing units.
The project — dubbed HALO — also would create new retail and office space, but would require demolishing some 160 existing residences.
The new families the city is attracting are straining local schools at the seams, Supt. Martin C. Gotowala said.
Public elementary schools are filled to capacity and Derby High School is filled beyond it, he said. "We are overcrowded, and projections done by the state … call for continued increases over the coming years," he said.
Core classes at Derby High run 28 to 30 students a class. Gotowala said 20 to 25 would be ideal.
But local voters, concerned about taxes, have twice frustrated efforts to build a new high school.
The census figures offer little relief to those concerned about school overcrowding.
The city has more kids than a decade ago, and the population bubble is fatter among younger kids who will enter junior and senior high school in the next few years.
For example, the census counted 795 5- to 9-year-olds in 2000, up from 634 in 1990. The oldest of those will start high school in four or five years.
There were 727 10- to 14-year-olds in 2000, up from 541 in 1990. Among those, the oldest recently hit high school age.
Overall, residents under 18 numbered 2,687 in 2000, compared with 2,326 in 1990. The trend is downward, though, extended over several decades.
There were nearly 4,000 in that category in 1970.
+ Census 2000 Website
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