by | Feb 17, 2023 10:01 am | Comments (6)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
263 Dixwell Ave.: One of 2 Ocean-owned properties the city plans to sell to Beulah.
The Elicker Administration is one step closer to buying and selling two two-family homes on Dixwell Avenue — so that a nonprofit can maintain the currently megalandlord-held properties as rentals.
Continue reading ‘Megalandlord-City-Nonprofit Housing Deal Advances’
by | Feb 10, 2023 10:04 am | Comments (11)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Vacant former Winchester factory at Munson/Mansfield ...
... Kim Harris with Harris & Tucker students: Hoping to see a "great, eye-popping development that will move everyone forward."
Alders endorsed a 17-year tax break deal for dozens of planned new below-market-rent Science Park apartments — as part of a broader set of local legislative proposals designed to further the redevelopment of the former Winchester Arms Factory’s remaining parking lots and vacant industrial buildings into new housing, retail, and bioscience labs.
Continue reading ‘Ex-Factory Tax Break, Redev Plans Advance’
by | Feb 7, 2023 12:33 pm | Comments (10)
Laura Glesby file photo
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison: Acquisitions “a step in the right direction."
3 of the 4 properties the city can now buy from Ocean, including the the Monterey Jazz Club in the center.
The Elicker Administration has won its final needed approval to acquire a slate of rundown properties, including a historic long-derelict former jazz club, from an oft-cited megalandlord to the tune of $1.3 million in an effort to revitalize a stretch of Dixwell Avenue.
by | Feb 2, 2023 3:32 pm | Comments (48)
PDD update pitch, with planned new developments in red.
The current surface parking lot at 110 Munson.
Thomas Breen fill photo
Developer Alex Twining: Part of the "replacement of parking lots with places to work and live."
A 200-space Munson Street parking lot could be the site of New Haven’s next biotech lab building — according to a Winchester-factory-redevelopment zoning update that received a favorable, if still skeptical, recommendation from the City Plan Commission.
Continue reading ‘Bye-Bye, Parking Lot? Lab Rezoning Advances’
by | Feb 1, 2023 12:30 pm | Comments (8)
At Tuesday's presser: KeyBank's Analisha Michanczyk, ConnCORP COO Paul McCraven, KeyBank's Matthew Hummel, ConnCORP Board Chair Carlton Highsmith; ConnCorp CEO Erik Clemons, Lab Executive Director Aya Beckles Swanson, and ConnCORP Chief Investment Officer Anna Blanding.
A vegan baker, a mobile notary, and a professional organizer were among the 20 hand-picked Greater New Haven minority business owners to embark on a rigorous entrepreneurial boot camp — and to benefit from a new $1 million grant designed in part to help that program and its participants thrive.
by | Jan 27, 2023 3:52 pm | Comments (0)
Kimberly Wiplfer photos
Kolton Harris and film student Joaquín Morales.
At Thursday's BITE kickoff.
“Who would have ever thought I’d be back in here watching a film?” asked Tracey Massey, in a hushed whisper, in the back row of a film screening at the former Stetson Branch library building in the soon-to-be-demolished Dixwell Plaza.
On the projector played “Black Joy,” a musical short film by Kolton Harris, which tells the story of a group of Black students in detention who find pride and celebration in their Blackness through song and dance.
“I came to this library 40 years ago as a child growing up in this neighborhood. It is here where we learned the first stories of Black joy. Here’s where we read books about Martin Luther King Jr., where we heard the first Michael Jackson song, the first Nina Simone song. We learned about Malcolm X. All of those stories generated out of this library.”
“It was joy. It was magic. [Harris] is reminding us of that. It was really just like it is in his film,” said Massey.
Continue reading ‘"Black Joy" Film Fest Bids Farewell To Former Stetson’
by and | Jan 26, 2023 11:31 am | Comments (6)
Lisa Reisman photo
At a LEAP-organized Halloween party at the Q House last fall.
LEAP Executive Director Henry Fernandez at Monday's Q House board meeting.
A local youth tutoring and recreation nonprofit’s bid to keep the Q House humming with more bingo, ballet, farmers markets and line dancing took a big leap forward this week — as the Dixwell Avenue community center’s board voted to recommend approval of a new five-year, $500,000 contract between LEAP and the city.
by | Jan 26, 2023 9:32 am | Comments (17)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
LCI Director Arlevia Samuel: Ocean is "holding firm at the $1.3M."
The former Monterey Jazz Club, center, along with the vacant deli and one of the multi-family homes the city plans to acquire.
The Elicker Administration’s bid to acquire a slate of rundown properties from an oft-cited megalandlord in an effort to revitalize a stretch of Dixwell Avenue took one big step closer to closing — as the Livable City Initiative’s (LCI) Board of Directors signed off on the proposed $1.3 million deal.
by | Jan 23, 2023 12:48 pm | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen photo
Maceo "Troy" Streater (center) with campaign supporters at King-Robinson.
(Updated) Maceo “Troy” Streater ended up on top of a four-way special election for Ward 21 alder, making him the next local legislative representative for a zig-zagged district that stretches across parts of Newhallville, Dixwell, and Prospect Hill.
by | Jan 18, 2023 5:37 pm | Comments (4)
Laura Glesby photo
Maceo Troy Streater knocks on Ann Garrett Robinson's door Wednesday.
A team of formerly-incarcerated campaigners rally behind Streater.
Door after door, Maceo Troy Streater set out in the neighborhood where he’s lived his whole life to campaign for a newly vacant alder seat — and to convince neighbors that personal and political change is possible.
by | Jan 18, 2023 10:48 am | Comments (0)
Isaac Yu photo
City arts director Adriane Jefferson (right) with colleague Kim Futrell at Tuesday's "cultural vitality" presser.
More artists and artisans at city farmers’ markets. The return of a historic Black cultural parade to Dixwell Avenue. Pop-up events for young photographers, actors and dancers looking to show off their work and grow their audiences.
Continue reading ‘Artists, Orgs Land $187K For "Cultural Vitality"’
by | Jan 17, 2023 8:53 am | Comments (4)
Laura Glesby photo
Stephanie Greenlea reflects Monday on 17 years of organizing with Local 33.
Days after Yale graduate student-workers officially won union recognition in a landslide election, a local labor coalition celebrated that victory while rallying in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s vision of working class justice.
by | Jan 16, 2023 6:30 pm | Comments (12)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Rev. Eldren Morrison: “The church has lost its activist spirit."
A former New Haven-based faith leader returned to Dixwell Avenue Monday to lift up Martin Luther King Jr.‘s legacy of church-led progressive political action.
Continue reading ‘Rev. Morrison Returns To Preach "Good Trouble"’
by | Jan 13, 2023 10:50 am | Comments (1)
Lisa Reisman photo
Fred Christmas at the door with Dixwell resident Sharon Green.
Fred Christmas bounded onto Winter Street in the biting January air, holding a manila envelope of campaign leaflets in his hand.
The Ward 21 alder hopeful had spent the morning talking with Dixwell voters, and was running late for a meetup with some neighborhood senior citizens. But there were still a few more doors to knock — and Christmas was on a mission.
by | Dec 16, 2022 3:03 pm | Comments (33)
Thomas Breen file photos
LCI Board Member Nadine Horton (left): "Rewarding bad behavior." LCI Director Arlevia Samuel (right): "Investing in community.”
Nora Grace Flood photo
The derelict former Monterey Jazz club on Dixwell.
A debate about how to revitalize the Dixwell neighborhood without rewarding a megalandlord for bad behavior has delayed a key vote on the Elicker Administration’s plans to buy four rundown properties for a combined sum of $1.3 million.
by | Dec 15, 2022 2:00 pm | Comments (0)
Ward 21 candidates Hurse, Christmas, Streater.
It’s election season again — at least in Ward 21 — with three candidates now vying for a newly opened seat on the Board of Alders.
by | Dec 13, 2022 4:30 pm | Comments (11)
Plan for the new Dixwell Plaza.
Over $4 million is coming to the city to help builders clean separate polluted properties in order to construct new homes and other public buildings.
Continue reading ‘Millions Flow To City For Building-Site Clean-Ups’
by | Dec 12, 2022 4:18 pm | Comments (5)
Contributed photo; Thomas Breen file Photo
Fred Christmas filing papers Monday at City Clerk's Office; Maceo Troy Streater.
Two lifelong New Haveners are seeking to become the next Ward 21 alder now that the incumbent has stepped down mid-term.
by | Dec 6, 2022 12:22 pm | Comments (0)
The following writeup about a recent performance of The Nutcracker ballet at the Q House was submitted to the Independent by the nonprofit Leadership, Education, Athletics in Partnership (LEAP).
Continue reading ‘100s Turn Out For The Nutcracker At The Q’
by | Dec 2, 2022 3:30 pm | Comments (36)
The former famed Monterey jazz club, one of 4 Ocean-owned buildings on Dixwell Ave. that the city is looking to buy for $1.3 million.
Thomas Breen file photo
LCI's Evan Trachten: Ocean has "had the site for several years and failed to develop it."
The Elicker Administration plans to purchase a handful of rundown Dixwell Avenue properties from affiliates of Ocean Management for $350,000 more than those properties’ combined city-appraised value — and for $800,000 more than what the megalandlord paid to buy those same buildings six years ago — as part of a public effort to develop affordable housing in a revitalizing stretch of the Dixwell neighborhood.
Continue reading ‘Desperate Dixwell Deal Profits Megalandlord’
by | Dec 2, 2022 9:08 am | Comments (20)
Thomas Breen photo
275 Winchester Ave., now under new ownership.
Two New Jersey-based investors have purchased the 158-unit Winchester Lofts luxury apartment complex — capping off a two-year local real estate spending spree that has seen that same landlord duo buy a total of 632 New Haven apartments for a price tag likely well in excess of $100 million.
by | Nov 30, 2022 12:35 pm | Comments (4)
Yash Roy photo
Vietnam vet Conley Monk, Jr. (right) with U.S. Sen. Blumenthal.
Conley Monk, Jr. finally received his federal veteran benefits in 2015 after more than four decades of denied claims and a successful court battle that led to nationwide discharge appeal reform.
The Vietnam War vet and former Marine joined a team of legal advocates and a sitting U.S. senator to announce a new lawsuit against the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) alleging racial bias in the process by which benefit claims like his are reviewed and approved.
by | Nov 1, 2022 11:11 am | Comments (2)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
At Monday's trunk-or-treat on Ashmun St.
Baby Savannah practices candy crawling her own way Monday night.
Little mermaids, Minions and monsters gathered outside of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program’s headquarters Monday — to take turns “trunk or treating” within a web of safety-minded community members and their cars.
Continue reading ‘Safety, Candy Abound At Ashmun Trunk-Or-Treat’
by | Oct 31, 2022 4:40 pm | Comments (4)
Lisa Reisman photo
Juanita Harris with granddaughters at Q House Halloween.
Under the setting sun, a group of young people line danced in loose precision to the beat of V.I.C.’s “Wobble.” A line with witches, ghosts, and dinosaurs stretched from the field to the gymnasium, where trick-and-treat festivities awaited. Face-painted zombies, pirates, and superheroes chased each other in the cool autumn air, squealing with delight.
by | Oct 31, 2022 9:52 am | Comments (0)
Melissa Bailey file photo
The late Winfred Rembert at his Newhall St. home.
Allan Appel photo
Prof. Erin I. Kelly with Rembert book and art on Thursday.
His tale of triumph through art, grit, and love in Georgia’s 1960s cotton fields, including seven years on a chain gang and a near lynching, is already taught at Yale — and well might become required reading in high schools and colleges throughout the country.
And a major motion picture should also be a consideration to get the story out far and wide.
Continue reading ‘Rembert's Rep Rises At NXTHVN Celebration’