by | Jan 2, 2024 1:57 pm | Comments (1)
Mari Infante, quarterback extraordinaire.
The first day of the new year dawned on our city with a promising omen: The sun popped out just as we began our walk, with the dog in tow, toward East Rock Park.
by | Jan 1, 2024 5:43 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Downer swears in Monday at city inauguration.
Troy Wyile walked onto the Wilbur Cross High School auditorium stage Monday to present a bouquet to his former tutor — as she embarks on a new route to help young people up their learning game in New Haven.
by | Dec 21, 2023 11:38 am | Comments (80)
Thomas Breen photo
A 4-foot bike lane between Edwards and Humphrey.
City transit planners Wednesday night received a fresh earful of impassioned pleas and conflicting advice from East Rockers as drivers and cyclists squared off about … Orange Street bike lanes.
by | Nov 28, 2023 12:21 pm | Comments (12)
Thomas Breen photo
490 Prospect St.: Now owned by Mandy, leased by Albertus.
Tapping “the current advantageous real estate market,” Albertus Magnus College has sold 20 units of student housing and related office and meeting space for $7.4 million to an affiliate of Mandy Management — and has entered into a long-term lease with the local megalandlord to preserve the property for school use.
Continue reading ‘Mandy Buys Albertus Student Housing For $7.4M’
by | Nov 27, 2023 8:19 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio photo
Michael Slyne at Volume 2.
On the day after Thanksgiving, many scattered through stores to find the best prices on holiday presents. Others settled into couches to catch college football. A select few found themselves making their way to FiFac’s House, a monthly music series held on the last Friday of each month over the past year at Never Ending Books. Not unlike the multitude of series held at the State Street gathering space — both before and after its reimagination under the Volume Two collective — the night offered an array of performers that established a symbiotic relationship between creator and listener via dissonance, dreaminess, and experimentation.
Continue reading ‘FiFac's House Makes A Home At Never Ending Books’
by | Nov 22, 2023 8:29 am | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden file photo
Student composters at work in Cross's cafeteria back in June.
This Thanksgiving season, Wilbur Cross sophomore Manxi Han is thankful to have a home that is not routinely submerged in several feet of water as sea levels rise, for access to food despite climate change-related disasters destroying farm lands, for healthy and clean air year-round, for minimal heat waves as the earth’s temperature rises, and for biodiversity as rates of extinction increase.
Continue reading ‘Student Climate Activists Speak Up About What To Fear, What To Be Thankful For’
by | Nov 17, 2023 9:22 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Margaret Stevens in her "life skills" classroom.
When Wilbur Cross English teacher Margaret Stevens told her class of multilingual students that the word of the day was “invent,” her students put their fingers to their bottom lips to feel the vibrations as they pronounced the word aloud with a “va” sound rather than a “ba” sound more familiar to Spanish speakers.
That exercise took place as part of a new effort at the East Rock public high school to teach “life skills” to students with special needs who are also still learning English, along with peer mentors, all in one class.
Continue reading ‘Special Needs Meet "Life Skills" In Cross Class’
by | Nov 9, 2023 9:25 am | Comments (3)
Karen Ponzio photo
Map sketching and nature journaling in East Rock.
East Rock Park on a sunny November Saturday was an idyllic setting for the most recent New Haven Nature Journal Club meet-up. The biweekly event focuses on gathering in natural settings to witness, observe, and document the surroundings through drawings and writings, with a bit of guidance and a bunch of support.
The group, led by Madelyn Neufeld, meets on Saturday mornings twice a month: once in East Rock Park and two weeks later at another location that changes each time. Neufeld started this club back in August after researching the Wild Wonder Foundation — which provides free nature journal resources — and finding no groups in Connecticut.
Continue reading ‘Nature Journal Club Draws From "Urban Oasis"’
by | Nov 8, 2023 12:11 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Nataly Magana with a doll she uses to help explain to child hospital patients what they're going through.
Nataly Magana told a classroom full of New Haven Academy students that she once considered becoming a teacher herself.
But instead she took a different career path — one that also involves counseling young people in need and helping them stay calm and flourish amidst challenging circumstances — as a certified child life specialist at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Continue reading ‘"Jobs You've Never Heard Of" Come To Class’
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 | Oct 25, 2023 4:40 pm | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden Photo
Wilbur Cross' Hispanic heritage panel Wednesday.
What do a retired educator, the city school district’s superintendent, an information technology director, a nonprofit program manager, a former New York City Councilman, and a social justice activist all have in common?
For one, they all love their Hispanic heritage.
They also all visited Wilbur Cross High School Wednesday morning.
Continue reading ‘Hispanic Heritage Celebrated At Wilbur Cross Panel’
by | Oct 25, 2023 4:08 pm | Comments (55)
Thomas Breen photo
At the scene of Wednesday morning's crash at Cold Spring-Livingston.
A 29-year-old Yale student was struck and injured by a car that reportedly ran a stop sign at an East Rock intersection — raising neighbor concerns about a park-adjacent problem spot replete with reckless motorists.
Continue reading ‘Pedestrian Struck At East Rock Intersection’
by | Oct 23, 2023 8:21 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Jo Kremer.
The top floor of the Marlinworks Eagle building in East Rock was the setting for the opening of the studios of a small but dazzling array of artists on Saturday afternoon, with a display of works as eye-grabbing as the foliage of East Rock Park right outside their windows. The five artists — Linda Lindroth, Nancy Karpel, Craig Newick, David Margolis and Jo Kremer — were participating in the artist-organized City-Wide Open Studios weekend this past Saturday and Sunday, which also included events in Erector Square and City Gallery.
Continue reading ‘Marlinworks Open Studios Falls Into Place’
by | Oct 13, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (3)
Allan Appel photo
Maria Espinal with malanga in the right hand, mangu in the left
Humberto and Maria Espinal tried out serving home fries at their home-style, Dominican cuisine-inspired new restaurant on Orange Street in East Rock.
But they quickly learned that customers wanted “the real stuff”: malanga, which is pureed root vegetable different if similar to taro root and having a kind of deep nutty taste; and mangu, a puree of green plantains.
“We gave it a two-week chance,” Maria said about the staple American-style home fries. But malanga and mangu, to customers’ delight, have won out.
by | Oct 6, 2023 4:13 pm | Comments (1)
Allan Appel Photo
Rabbi James Ponet in his sukkah on the last night of the holiday.
In these fragile times, it is possible to find celebration and even the joy of a little truth lurking in the midst of the most temporary and vulnerable circumstances.
So I was reminded Thursday night when I hung out in Rabbi James Ponet’s sukkah.
Continue reading ‘Transience Meets Transcendence On Everit Street’
by | Sep 27, 2023 6:27 pm | Comments (10)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Randi Weingarten (right) helps a student laminate and cut a school sign in the Wilbur Cross print shop.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten returned to New Haven — a decade after helping turn the city into a national model for school reform — and lauded Wilbur Cross High School as a potential leader in hands-on schooling amid a new era of learning loss.
Continue reading ‘AFT Prez Gets Hands-On Education At Cross’
by | Sep 21, 2023 4:08 pm | Comments (132)
Thomas Breen photo
At Wednesday's parks commission meeting: this crew doesn't have power over summit road.
The Elicker administration — and not the parks commission — will have the final say over whether or not the road to the top of East Rock Park remains largely closed to cars, and open to pedestrians and cyclists only.
The mayor said he has received widespread community support for keeping the road largely closed to cars, so he plans not to make a change.
Continue reading ‘Mayor: I'm Keeping Park Road Mostly Car-Closed’
by | Sep 11, 2023 8:43 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos.
Lara Herscovitch and The Highway Philosophers.
Lara Herscovitch sang through her sound check, making up lyrics apropos for the day and place: “We are not in a monsoon. It’s a beautiful day.”
Not a drop of rain was to be found on Saturday at the CT Folk Fest and Green Expo, though the heat and humidity was of the late summer variety. A full day and night of music and spoken word on two stages, as well as hourly activities for children and adults, food, drink, and a multitude of vendors awaited visitors behind the stone walls of Edgerton Park. This reporter took in a third of the acts that performed from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
by | Sep 8, 2023 4:03 pm | Comments (6)
Maya McFadden File Photo
Cross sophomores Charlotte Herzog, Alma Barjamovic, and Maya Harpaz-Levi.
On the third day of the 2023 – 24 school year, Wilbur Cross sophomores Charlotte Herzog, Alma Barjamovic, and Maya Harpaz-Levi reminisced on a summer of travels to Denmark, Israel, Ireland, and Maine — while also celebrating their return to the city’s largest public high school, which they described as overflowing with opportunity, variety, and diversity.
Continue reading ‘At School Year's Start, Wilbur Cross Keeps Growing’
by | Sep 1, 2023 12:27 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photo
Michael Nutter: Goldenberg has "the capacity, he has the intellect, the drive, the focus, the commitment that I look for in folks looking to run for office."
Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter took a 5:15 a.m. Amtrak to New Haven to grab a cup of orange juice and talk politics at East Rock Market, survey the transit hub-adjacent desolation of Church Street South, and throw his support behind his former student’s run for mayor.
by | Aug 21, 2023 1:35 pm | Comments (0)
Abiba Biao photos
Nkenge Hook, with listing employers and application information (below), at New Haven Works-organized job fair.
Fair Haven resident Nkenge Hook didn’t miss a beat of information, filling the lines of her notebook with bright blue ink as each employer stepped up to speak.
Continue reading ‘2nd Careers Sought At Albertus-Hosted Job Fair’
by | Aug 21, 2023 8:53 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos.
That Virginia at Witch Bitch Thrift.
The Black Box at Witch Bitch Thrift echoed with music, laughter, and an ever-present sense of community as AcoustiQueers made its premiere at the event space on Saturday night. A series that — according to Witch Bitch’s social media post, “creates an intimate space to celebrate queer music and queer joy” — was started by artist Eli Wood in New York City in 2017. After playing one of those events, the store’s co-owner and musician Virginia Semighini received permission to bring the series to Connecticut, where it ran until 2018. With the evolution of the Whitney Avenue thrift store to now include an event space, the series is being revived and, on this evening, features Semeghini, the New Haven-based trio Untold Joys, and a solo performance by Olive Tiger.
by | Aug 18, 2023 7:23 am | Comments (1)
Detail from promotional art for Merry Wives of Windsor.
“Here will be an old abusing of God’s patience and the King’s English,” says Mistress Quickly, played with cheeky humor by Martine Fleurisma in Elm Shakespeare Company’s production of one of the bard’s lesser-known works, The Merry Wives of Windsor. The production plays fast and loose with the audience’s expectations, but it never betrays their patience or wastes their time. Instead, The Merry Wives of Windsor — running now through Sept. 3 at Edgerton Park — provides exactly what it promises: wit, wiles, wanton scoundrels, and scheming wives. Most of all, it supplies the audience with over two hours of good, old-fashioned fun.
by | Aug 9, 2023 8:29 am | Comments (25)
Thomas Breen photo
400 Prospect: Psychologists can stay ... for now.
Yale has purchased a two-and-a-half-story Prospect Street house-turned-office building for $2.85 million, further cementing the university’s ownership of much of a Prospect Hill block.
Continue reading ‘Yale Buys Prospect Hill Office Building For $2.85M’
by | Jul 31, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (1)
Eleanor Polak Photos
Zines, zines, and more zines, at Bike Co-Op-hosted fair.
The Bradley Street Bike Co-Op overflowed with glossy prints, eye-catching artwork, and colorful personalities for a Zine Fair that offered an opportunity for connection and collaboration, as well as a meeting ground for artists of all different mediums.