by | Jan 3, 2024 3:29 pm | Comments (54)
Laura Glesby photo
Streater: Lost 24 years of his life to a crooked prosecution.
On Monday Troy Streater was sworn in for his first full term a city alder. On Tuesday he sued the city for $50 million in punitive damages and $50 million in compensatory damages for the two dozen years he spent in prison on a wrongful conviction.
by | Jan 2, 2024 1:37 pm | Comments (2)
Winter Wonderland celebration in full swing.
There were toys, every kind of toy, over 2,000 in all. There were remote-control cars and action figures and explorer kits and puzzles and Legos and Slime and board games and magnetic building blocks and light boxes and glow-in-the-dark basketballs and crystal balls, as well as dolls of every age, model, and style.
Young partygoer amid snowflakes.
Under the brights lights of the Dixwell Community‑Q House gymnasium at the first annual Winter Wonderland Celebration toy giveaway on the Saturday before Christmas, there was music booming and people dancing and kids tearing around the hardwood floors, and snow swirling from a snow machine, and cotton candy, and Santa and Mrs. Claus perched on a sleigh for photo-ops.
by | Nov 22, 2023 12:19 pm | Comments (21)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
669 Dixwell today: what will best boost the Avenue?
Ricotta pies and pepperoni slices may replace the ghosts of bygone fifths and whiskey bottles at a former Dixwell Avenue liquor store — though neighbors are offering mixed reviews about a potential pizzeria on their main commercial strip.
Continue reading ‘Pizza Pitch Splits Newhallville Neighbors’
by | Nov 21, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photo
Dishawn Harris, a.k.a Farmer D., at Saturday's workshop.
Putting your hands to soil to plant garlic. Chewing on a leaf of fresh oregano. Noticing the sun on your face. At “Rooted Youth,” a collaborative event between the Dixwell art center NXTHVN and the garden-creation outfit Root Life, held at the Goffe Street Armory Garden, participants learned about how these simple experiences can open up broader pathways to understanding more about our relationship to our environment, and how we can adapt to climate change.
Continue reading ‘Garden Workshop Teaches How To Put Down Roots’
by | Nov 16, 2023 5:02 pm | Comments (32)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
87 Webster St. destroyed, in preparation for Dixwell block's rebirth.
As an excavator arm reached out to tear down the wall of the old Elks Club at Webster Street and Dixwell Avenue, Beverly Barnes lifted a hand to shield her face from the sight — then readjusted her focus to an anticipated future of bustling sidewalks, modernized apartments and new neighbors.
Continue reading ‘Ex-Elks Lodge Demolished For Dixwell Plaza Redev’
by | Nov 6, 2023 9:57 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen / Lisa Reisman / Paul Bass / Laura Glesby photos
Write-in alder candidates (clockwise from top left) Josh Glaab of Ward 10, Fred Christmas of Ward 21, Ira Johnson of Ward 11, Dennis Serfilippi of Ward 25, and Susan Campion of Ward 18.
A high school science teacher in East Rock, a community organizer in Dixwell, a budget watchdog in Westville, and a Tweed critic in Morris Cove are some of the five alder hopefuls this year seeking to convince voters to put pen to ballot to support their write-in candidacies for local legislative office.
by | Nov 3, 2023 2:31 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Toni Thorpe, Royce Hatfield, Richard Cowes, Sara Gonzalez, Latoya Armstrong, and Stephanie Paris-Cooper.
Every day last spring, Latoya Armstrong dropped her daughter off for camp at the Q House.
One day in April, on her way out she scanned a flyer QR code to learn about the programs at the Dixwell community center and found a perfect fit for herself: GED classes by the New Haven Adult & Continuing Education Center.
by | Nov 2, 2023 10:43 am | Comments (0)
The following writeup was submitted by Melissa Liriano, the communications coordinator for Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership, Inc. (LEAP).
by | Nov 1, 2023 10:34 am | Comments (2)
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At the recent Q House youth-organized college fair.
Thomas Breen photo
Q House youth leaders Xavier Jones, Kate Kim, and Eliana Cortez.
Hundreds of city teens got a chance to apply to colleges in-person in Dixwell — thanks to a Q House youth-led push to center the voices and needs of young New Haveners.
Continue reading ‘Hundreds Turn Out For Q House College Fair’
by | Oct 24, 2023 9:15 am | Comments (1)
Continue reading ‘Halloween Spooktacular Coming To The Q House’
by | Oct 23, 2023 1:58 pm | Comments (11)
Maya McFadden Photo
Math teacher Charity Ann Chambers helps students "embrace mistakes."
As her ninth-grade students puzzled through box and dot plots, Achievement First Amistad High School math teacher Charity Ann Chambers urged them not to be discouraged. Sometimes, she said, “trying is more exemplary to me than accuracy.”
Continue reading ‘In Ms. Chambers' Class, "Math Is Everywhere"’
by | Oct 12, 2023 4:00 pm | Comments (2)
Regina Winters-Toussaint.
While a student at the Yale School of Architecture in 1992, Regina Winters-Toussaint created her own summer internship. As one of the first counselors for LEAP, then a new youth enrichment program in New Haven, she moved into Westville Manor public housing, where she mentored the young people living there.
That willingness to steep herself in the experience of those who would live and work in the structures she built is among the reasons for the induction of Winters-Toussaint, who died of cancer at 47 in April 2016, in the CT Women’s Hall of Fame, according to its executive director Sarah Lubarsky.
Continue reading ‘Regina Winters-Toussaint To Be Inducted Posthumously Into CT Women’s Hall of Fame’
by | Oct 9, 2023 10:08 am | Comments (4)
Abiba Biao photo
Marcus Harvin: “As long as they’ll have me, I’ll be there.”
Re-entering society is a daunting task for many formerly-incarcerated individuals. For Marcus Harvin, that stress was partially alleviated thanks to Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven (NHS) — an affordable housing nonprofit where Harvin has found a sense of purpose through community building and beautification.
Continue reading ‘Affordable Housing Nonprofit Celebrates 44 Years’
by | Oct 2, 2023 8:45 am | Comments (13)
John T. Hill photo
On the Green, 1970.
Thousands of National Guardsmen gathered in the Goffe Street Armory, weapons of war in hand as they prepared to confront anti-war activists and Black Panther trial protesters on the Green.
But unlike at Kent State and Jackson State just a few days later, in New Haven, that violence didn’t come. A “conspiracy” of town and gown, Black and white, local and national players prevailed. The peace was kept, for the most part.
Fifty-three years later, the Armory — used as the National Guard’s staging ground for the May Day rally of 1970, a potential wellspring for bloodshed on that tumultuous day — was commemorated instead as a city landmark of the civil rights movement.
by | Sep 27, 2023 3:19 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
United Illuminating (UI), city officials, and small business owners kick off Small Business Energy Efficiency Campaign.
Flyer to be handed out during neighborhood canvassing.
Local small businesses looking to save money on their energy systems can also help address the climate crisis at the same time — by switching to LED lights, better sealing windows, improving insulation, adopting programmable thermostats, and other energy-efficient interventions.
So pitched city officials and representatives from United Illuminating (UI) and Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG) on Monday as they kicked off a week-long Small Business Energy Efficiency Campaign in the rain at 300 and 302 Dixwell Ave. that is designed to support some of those climate-friendly changes.
Continue reading ‘Small Biz Energy Efficiency Campaign Kicks Off In Dixwell’
by | Sep 26, 2023 8:34 am | Comments (0)
Birthing a New Sky (Mira and Sora).
The central figure in Birthing a New Sky (Mira and Sora) has immediate, obvious associations with the Buddha, and with meditation and enlightenment. But it’s not just a generic picture of a spiritual leader. The silhouette is specific; it’s an individual, a real person, alive today. Colors course through the shape of their body, the shadows of multitudes of people. The image buzzes with movement and growth, but also exudes balance and peace, connection with nature and with the self. It points toward the future with a sense of genuine, earned lightness and hope.
Continue reading ‘Artist Takes Notes From A Compassionate Future’
by | Sep 22, 2023 2:14 pm | Comments (16)
Zoom images
Landlord lawyer Herb Reckmeyer (right): Why not move? Tenant Tia Cuthbertson: "Everybody deserves to live in a safe environment."
Tia Cuthbertson Photo
The mice in Cuthbertson's apartment.
The last time Tia Cuthbertson used her oven was over a year ago. She was preheating the appliance when she noticed a cloud of smoke — and found a charred mouse inside, burning alive.
Cuthbertson has now received a dramatic reprieve from the Fair Rent Commission, which lowered her rent to $1 per month until her megalandlord, Ocean Management, clears out the mice that have invaded her apartment and fixes other problems.
by | Sep 20, 2023 12:09 pm | Comments (5)
Allan Appel photo
Pastor Harold Brooks (right) and Rosie Hoke.
To hear Rosie Hoke tell it, Beulah Heights First Pentecostal Church — a century old this year — was born with a miracle.
by | Sep 18, 2023 9:00 am | Comments (3)
Karen Ponzio Photos.
Silent Book Club New Haven selections for September.
Are you one of those people who grabs a book with all intentions of plowing through a decent number of pages and ends up not reading any — distracted by the phone, the TV or household chores? The Silent Book Club might be perfect for you.
by and | Sep 15, 2023 12:03 pm | Comments (24)
Allan Appel photo
Surprised non-Democrat Anthony Carter, with Bella Vista moderator Patricia Solomon.
“I’ve been a Democrat all my life,” said May, an 81-year-old Newhallville resident who said she’s voted at Lincoln-Bassett School every election since she bought her home in 1985.
Except she wasn’t a Democrat on Tuesday. She found out from a moderator that she had been re-registered as an “unaffiliated” voter, ineligible to vote in the primary.
May was one of at least dozens of people across the city to find out on Tuesday that they couldn’t vote because they weren’t Democrats. To many, including May, that news came as an inexplicable surprise.
Continue reading ‘Unexpected Unaffiliateds Turned Away At Polls’
by | Sep 11, 2023 4:23 pm | Comments (34)
Laura Glesby photo
Developer Yves Joseph and Mayor Justin Elicker at "Canal Place."
“We are building, building, building,” Mayor Justin Elicker declared before the rising metal skeleton of what will eventually become 168 mixed-income apartments, in a part of the city rendered nearly unrecognizable by a flood of new housing construction.
Continue reading ‘168 More Apartments On The Rise In Dixwell’
by | Aug 29, 2023 2:24 pm | Comments (18)
Thomas Breen photos
Lance Thomas, on Winchester Ave: "There's too much gun violence."
414 Dixwell, one of many Ocean properties up for sale.
Ocean Management affiliates sold another nine local rental properties over the past month — while Mandy Management affiliates sold six buildings of their own and bought one anew — as “For Sale” signs continue to pop up on front lawns across Newhallville and Dixwell.
Continue reading ‘"For Sale" Signs Multiply As Ocean Keeps Selling’
by | Aug 29, 2023 8:23 am | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery photo
Making a sailboat from the squiggly plastic of a 3D gun. Making even more complex objects from 3D printers. Exploring the open worlds of videogames. All of these and more — much more — happen at the Teen Center and Makerspace Drop-In, Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Stetson Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library, located in the Q House at 197 Dixwell Ave. The event and the space are intended to help library patrons learn to create, explore the library more deeply, and have fun doing it.
by | Aug 25, 2023 9:20 am | Comments (2)
Lisa Reisman photos
Order's up: Deari'e's Surf & Turf, at Dixwell's Dope N Delicious.
David James, Deari'e Allick, De'Ari Allick Jr., De'Ari Allick, and James Nelson on a recent afternoon at Dope N Delicious.
Talk about a dream summer internship.
Deari’e Allick, who’s 14 and a student in culinary arts at Eli Whitney Tech, spent the last two months whipping up dishes that range from lamb chops with smashed potatoes to the Pineapple Bowl to, on a recent afternoon, Surf & Turf.
Her boss is her father De’Ari Allick, owner of Dope N Delicious, a pocket-sized joint specializing in southern comfort food, seafood, and soul food at 300 Dixwell Ave. De’Ari learned to cook from his mother Audrey Maysonet. De’Ari passed it on to Deari’e.
by | Aug 24, 2023 5:17 pm | Comments (0)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
The new facade for the Edith Johnson apartments at 114 Bristol St.
Tenant Jackie Reilly puts her handprint on the wall to commemorate the renovations — and express her excitement for more fun to be had in the building's overhauled communal space.
Jackie Reilly is ready to play bingo, practice chair yoga, and hold Christmas parties in her apartment building’s new common room — now that a long-coming $5.2 million renovation of the nearly 50-year-old Edith Johnson senior public-housing development in Dixwell has wrapped.
Continue reading ‘Upgrades Unveiled At Edith Johnson Towers’