Dixwell

Homecoming

by | Jun 25, 2013 8:08 am | Comments (2)

Allan Appel Photo

State child-welfare authorities took away Nadine Diaz’s twins Molli and Joel six weeks after they were born. She had been using drugs and had severe post-partem depression; it was hard to stay on a path to recovery with little support at home.

That’s when she turned to r kids Family Center, a small adoption and reconnection agency that does huge things in the lives of struggling families. Diaz got her kids back in April.

Monday afternoon Diaz and other families celebrated the organization’s tenth year with a block party outside r kids’ home at 45 Dixwell Ave. The party featured popcorn, ices, hugs, music, and stories about treating people even in the most dire straits with respect and dignity.

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Elicker Dives Into Dixwell

by | May 28, 2013 8:15 am | Comments (50)

I’m not supporting someone [just] because of the color of their skin,” Greg Morehead called up to the second-floor window on Admiral Street after introducing yet another neighbor to my friend Justin.”

We don’t do that,” agreed the woman on the second floor. Then she gave Morehead’s friend” all the time he wanted to make his pitch.

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In Dixwell, White Flight Script Rings True

by | May 20, 2013 3:22 pm | Comments (2)

Allan Appel Photo

Lillian Brown listened intently to a scene from a play about white flight in a mythical American town in 1959.

It didn’t take the 95-year-old veteran Newhallville political activist long to add some lines of painful autobiographical fact to the compelling fiction she’d just heard: When we came in [to Division Street] to purchase our house [60 years ago], the white families all put their houses up for sale.”

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2 Sunday Fixes: The Freddie Parade & A Mayoral Debate

by | May 17, 2013 1:58 pm | Comments (2)

Thomas MacMillan Photo

New Haven’s Nation marched in the 2010 parade.

The annual Freddie Fixer Parade, which draws thousands of people from throughout the region to Dixwell Avenue, begins at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Then, at 4 p.m., the seven Democratic candidates for mayor all plan for the first time to participate in a debate together, this one focused on economic development.

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Guv Gets Churched
On Charter Schools

by | Mar 24, 2013 5:25 pm | Comments (4)

Allan Appel Photo

Worship at Varick regularly draws 1,150 people in three separate and consecutive services on Sunday.

If Paul the Apostle asked for financial assistance on his way to preach in Rome. So can Varick Memorial Zion Church ask the state for financial assistance on the way to establishing the Booker T. Washington Academy charter school.

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On Charter Schools’

Dixwell Corner Named For
Pioneering Female Pastor

by | Mar 24, 2013 10:30 am | Comments (0)

Allan Appel Photo

Dr. Darden offers praise to those praising her.

Her congregants honored her as a true woman of God, a founder of their church, and a pioneering female pastor for 30 years. Since it was Dr. Mattie Atkinson Darden’s 87th birthday, the City of New Haven put some frosting on her cake: a corner named in honor.

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Pioneering Female Pastor’

Engine 6 Tackles Nemo—Flake By Flake

by | Feb 10, 2013 5:36 pm | Comments (12)

Gardin prepares to hop off the truck to direct traffic.

Paul Bass Photos

Firefighters “Noodles” Nardini, Allen, Bialecki, and Gardin wait to see if a tow and a plow can clear an intersection.

An ambulance was stuck in the middle of Shelton Avenue three blocks ahead. The fire crew would need to find an alternate route to reach an emergency carbon-monoxide call. Or at least get somewhere close enough to walk.

If we don’t get by that [ambulance] up there,” Lt. Melissa Allen remarked, we’re dead in the water.”

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