True Vote

Dillon Focuses Campaign On Retail Jobs

by | Oct 18, 2024 1:26 pm | Comments (21)

Paul Bass Photo

State Rep. Pat Dillon at WNHH FM: "It's great if you bought DoorDash stock five years ago, not if you had maybe 10 people on your staff, serving people, and now you're down to two."

Pat Dillon started visiting voters on her 22nd round of seeking election to a state legislative seat when she learned something new: the Amity Walgreens is closing.

The voters who broke the news considered it a big deal. Dillon said she does, too, and intends to incorporate it into her work if elected on Nov. 5 to represent New Haven’s west-side 92nd General Assembly District for a 21st two-year term.

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State Stops Short Of Cellphone Ban

by | Aug 21, 2024 2:44 pm | Comments (11)

Thomas Breen file photo

State ed commissioner Russell-Tucker: Fewer phone distractions, better student mental health.

Cellphones should be kept out of the hands of elementary and middle school students, and their use should be restricted — but not outright banned — for high schoolers.

The state Board of Education handed down those recommendations Wednesday as they voted to encourage, but not require, public schools across Connecticut to limit students’ use of personal technology” during the school day in a bid to cut down on distractions in the classroom.

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Yondr Go Cellphones In Schools?

by | Aug 16, 2024 1:13 pm | Comments (13)

Maya McFadden Photos

Bayan Albakkour: A phone-free example for her siblings.

Adona Blair with her cousin and younger sister: Locking away phones tells students you don't believe in them.

Metropolitan Business Academy rising junior Bayan Albakkour thinks that Yondr cellphone pouches — a method for creating phone-free spaces that some New Haven schools are adopting — are a good idea to help students focus on class by hiding a key source of distraction. 

Her best friend, meanwhile, remains unconvinced — and thinks these cases that lock away students’ phones for the day will only encourage students to rebel more.

That debate will play out this fall as three New Haven public schools experiment with stowing away phones after a pilot year at Barnard.

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Fleeing Theater Gets Going-Away Tax Present

by | Jul 24, 2024 11:35 am | Comments (23)

Thomas Breen photo

So long suckers: The former Criterion movie house.

ARTHUR DELOT-VILAIN PHOTO

Bow Tie Partners CFO Ron Statile to alders: Not our fault we didn't notice we hadn't paid our taxes for six years.

The city is on track to forgive over $10,000 of interest on the city’s last non-pornographic movie theater owner’s unpaid tax bills it left behind when it left town.

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City Dems Line Up Behind Harris

by | Jul 21, 2024 4:35 pm | Comments (51)

Early local favorites: Harris (left) for prez; Murphy (right) for veep?

Top New Haven Democrats coalesced quickly Sunday behind Kamala Harris as their party’s presidential nominee now that Joe Biden has announced he will not seek reelection.

At least two local Dems, including one delegate to next month’s party convention, added U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (who often shows up on lists of potential future presidential candidates) as their favored running mate to take on the Donald Trump‑J.D. Vance Republican ticket.

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Candidate Winter Has A Geo-Winterizing Idea

by | Jul 11, 2024 12:39 pm | Comments (13)

Laura Glesby Photo

Steve Winter with pooch pal Toly on the campaign trail.

So you have a school that needs repairs.

You have a planet that needs fewer carbon emissions.

You have a neighborhood where people pay too much for electricity.

Steve Winter has an idea about how to address those three needs at once — and where to find buckets of money to do it.

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Brill Battles Bots To Rescue Truth

by | Jun 20, 2024 9:16 am | Comments (5)

Author Brill (at right): "If we understand how truth has been so eviscerated, we can see how to restore it."

The Death Of Truth: How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed To Destroy Trust and Polarize the World — And What We Can Do About It
By Steven Brill
Alfred A. Knopf

Villains abound in Steven Brill’s new call to arms to rescue truth from internet disinformation agents and pink slime” peddlers. My favorite villain is a piece of legislation.

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It's Official: $679M Budget OK'd; LCI To Split

by | May 28, 2024 9:47 pm | Comments (26)

Laura Glesby photo

Finance Chair Marchand: Budget balances optimism, restraint.

A housing agency focused on inspections, a separate parks department, a designated affordable housing development officer, and a 38.5 mill rate.

Those changes and others are coming to New Haven in the 2024 – 25 fiscal year, by way of a new budget passed by alders on Tuesday night.

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Cars-vs.-Housing Groundhog Day

by | May 17, 2024 1:02 pm | Comments (14)

Thomas Breen photo

146 Greenwich (right): Room on the block for another car?

Trachten and Rodriguez offer different views to BZA on adding housing without parking.

The city’s latest clash of cars and beds took place at the dead end of Greenwich Avenue, where an alder sought to stop the creation of a single new apartment on the grounds that the street already has too many parked vehicles.

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Zoning Q: More Housing, More Parking?

by | May 6, 2024 12:47 pm | Comments (58)

Clockwise from top left: Up to 64 new apartments eyed for Hamilton St.; developer Yoon Lee; the 63 Hamilton parking lot; Lost in New Haven's Rob Greenberg.

A bid to provide lots more places for people to live on Hamilton Street has prompted pushback from some neighbors over where current and future residents and visitors will be able to put their cars.

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Parks Help Wanted. Tokers Needn't Apply

by | Mar 26, 2024 10:49 am | Comments (13)

Wikimedia photo

Only one kind of grass allowed for public mower job hopefuls.

City of New Haven job posting

Pre-employment drug test required for seasonal parks caretaker job.

If you want to make $18 an hour cutting grass in the city’s parks this summer, then you better not smoke grass before applying for the job.

Because New Haven requires prospective seasonal parks workers to pass a drug test, including for marijuana, even though recreational cannabis is now legal statewide.

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