Fair Haven

Refugee Won't Forget Kabul's Fall

by | Apr 24, 2024 8:34 am | Comments (6)

Contributed photo

Hossna Samadi.

Twenty years of women’s hopes and dreams collapsed in one day.” 

That’s how New Havener and Afghan refugee Hossna Samadi described the 2021 fall of Kabul.

She wasn’t in her home country at the time, having left Afghanistan with her family five years earlier. But the shock of seeing the Taliban return to power reverberated thousands of miles away — and sticks with Samadi as she gets to know her New Haven neighbors and explains what it’s like to be Afghan today.

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Cricket Brings Hyderabad To Fair Haven

by | Apr 19, 2024 2:16 pm | Comments (6)

Thomas Breen photos

Raj Kumar winds up.

Hitesh Redy, with improvised "cricket bat."

Raj Kumar lifted his right arm like a windmill against the backdrop of the former English Station power plant as he bowled” a tennis ball towards Hitesh Redy — who didn’t need a proper cricket bat to enjoy some time in the park in Fair Haven. 

A plank of wood salvaged from their Woolsey Street home would do just fine.

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Judge OKs Migrant Workers' Eviction

by | Apr 17, 2024 2:07 pm | Comments (7)

Edgar Becerra and Josue Mauricio Arana in court.

Laura Glesby Photo

Edgar Becerra protests his former employer, MDF Painting and Power Washing, before the eviction proceedings.

A judge has ruled that Edgar Becerra and Josue Mauricio Arana must find a new place to live, ending an eviction case that sparked protests over alleged exploitation of migrant workers.

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Driver Arrested In 2023 Fatal Hit & Run

by | Apr 10, 2024 8:51 pm | Comments (4)

Thomas Breen photo

Chief Jacobson (right) alongside Rodriguez's family.

Contributed photo

The late José Rodríguez.

Amidst a cloud of smoke” and doubled-parked cars, a 19-year-old driver named Dajon Marques Morris struck and fatally injured a 41-year-old motorcyclist named José Rodríguez in Fair Haven.

Morris then panicked” and, fearing for his life,” fled the scene — only to be arrested by city cops roughly 10 months later.

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Protest Targets Migrant Worker Eviction

by | Feb 23, 2024 9:43 am | Comments (6)

Laura Glesby Photo

Edgar Becerra protests with ULA outside MDF Painting and Power Washing.

We have human rights,” Edgar Becerra called into a bullhorn, speaking in Spanish. We have a heart.”

He was surrounded by over 25 immigrant rights activists outside the Branford headquarters of his Fair Haven landlord and former employer — who brought him to the U.S. as a temporary worker, allegedly fired him for work-related injuries, and is now trying to evict him a second time.

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State Sues UI For Power Plant Passivity

by | Jan 29, 2024 4:03 pm | Comments (42)

"Just look at this place": State Attorney General Tong, Mayor Elicker, State Sen. Looney, and DEEP Commissioner Dykes on Monday.

State officials stumbled across the littered grounds leading up to English Station to announce a lawsuit filed on the same grounds as other failed threats against United Illuminating — seeking to re-energize the company’s long-delayed remediation of the site.

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Parent Leadership Mission Returns

by | Jan 22, 2024 12:14 pm | Comments (3)

Contributed Photo

PLTI Class of 2018.

Vimary Parra needed help. Her two young kids were already behind. They had to learn English. She didn’t know how to teach them. Having grown up in Venezuela, she was learning the language herself. Then she saw a flyer at her local library for the Parents Leadership Training Institute (PLTI) — an initiative that’s returning to New Haven.

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Landlord-Boss Boots Injured Migrant Worker

by | Jan 12, 2024 2:54 pm | Comments (24)

Edgar Becerra in court: "I just want everyone to know the name of this company and all the injustices they did."

Construction boss-landlord Mark DeFrancesco, right, in court with lawyer Josh Brown.

Edgar Becerra fell off a 30-foot ladder — then landed in court this week fighting to stay in the country against a boss who first fired him then moved to evict him.

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