by | Jun 17, 2024 3:24 pm | Comments (3)
Abiba Biao photo
Jaysen Anthony Threet: "I don't even know if words can explain."
After losing his father Louis Ortiz and four other family members in a matter of months during his time in high school, Metropolitan Business Academy senior Jaysen Anthony Threet didn’t think he’d cross the graduation stage.
But, last Thursday, he beat the odds.
by and | Jun 14, 2024 4:52 pm | Comments (15)
Maya McFadden photo
Graduation split-screen: 104 8th-graders celebrate at Fair Haven School ...
Arthur Delot-Vilain photo
... as eight 8th-graders prepare to move on up from Brennan-Rogers. Pictured here: Jovanna Coardes, Ca’Nayza Smalls, and Teneshia Harrington.
More than 100 eighth-graders walked across the stage in Fair Haven Friday morning to celebrate graduating from one of New Haven’s fastest-growing schools — at the same time that eight of their peers on the far west side of town gathered for a much smaller ceremony at one of the city’s fastest-shrinking schools.
by | Jun 10, 2024 9:41 am | Comments (2)
Eleanor Polak photos
Lynette Devore and Lisa Bellamy Fluker (below) at Riverfest.
The June sunlight sparkled off the smooth waters of the Quinnipiac River beside the Quinnipiac River Marina in Fair Haven, where people of all ages gathered to participate in the Quinnipiac Riverfest this Saturday.
Continue reading ‘Quinnipiac Riverfest Brightens Fair Haven’
by | Jun 7, 2024 4:53 pm | Comments (6)
Edgar Becerra and Josue Arana (center) join ULA for Friday's protest.
Edgar Becerra and Josue Arana packed their belongings into a total of two mid-sized suitcases and a backpack. On Friday morning, they stepped one last time out of the house at 200 Peck St. where they’d lived for the past year. They did not know where they would be sleeping that night.
The eviction culminated a months-long court battle revealing the triple power of one local business’s role as an employer, landlord, and visa sponsor to the temporary migrant workers it hires.
by | Jun 7, 2024 12:17 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Alex Lewis and Lisa Rodriguez celebrate Lewis' $500 college scholarship.
Hillhouse senior Alex Lewis began high school feeling isolated and insecure amidst online-only classes during the pandemic. All that changed when he joined the school’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), which gave him the confidence he needed to feel like he too could go to college.
With the help of his sergeant and the local teachers union, Lewis received a $500 boost to chase that post-high school educational dream.
by | Jun 6, 2024 11:04 am | Comments (15)
Abiba Biao photos
Madison Mcgregor and Karriema Peters: "A natural beauty" to the Mill River underpass (pictured below).
Among the weeds and overgrown vegetation of a highway underpass off of State Street, Achievement First Amistad High School juniors Madison Mcgregor and Karriema Peters couldn’t help but see potential.
The soil, still damp and moist from a recent downpour, could make fertile land for a community garden in the future. What type of foods they would grow is still up for debate.
by | May 10, 2024 8:53 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden
Ari checks out a preserved black swallowtail butterfly.
In the school’s garden space, Clinton Avenue School fifth-grader Ari brought a magnifier close to a green, rounded leaf plucked from a dandelion and discovered tiny pearls — better known as caterpillar eggs.
She did so as part of an outdoor lesson led by Common Ground’s Schoolyards Program educator Melissa Fredricksen.
Continue reading ‘Students Break From Chrysalis Into Garden World’
by | May 9, 2024 1:35 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
Miriam Camacho, back at FAME with her new book.
Former Principal Miriam Camacho returned to her old school in Fair Haven to encourage students to always hold on to their home cultures — and, when possible, to make sofrito from scratch.
by | May 7, 2024 11:05 am | Comments (0)
Dexter Singleton and Austin Dean Ashford.
It was just a read-through of a scene, without a costume or stage blocking, but the switches in writer and actor Austin Dean Ashford’s tone of voice were more than enough to convey switches in character: a wistful, optimistic young teacher, and an older, weathered but hopeful mentor. Later on in the reading, a harried school principal, and four students with whom that young teacher was going to have to prove himself. Director Dexter Singleton listened intently, and took notes.
by | May 6, 2024 6:10 pm | Comments (15)
Maya McFadden Photos
Mayor Justin Elicker serves up ice cream floats...
Maya McFadden Photo
... alongside Superintendent Madeline Negron, for "Staying Afloat" teacher gratitude event.
Fair Haven School teachers took a quick break from keeping students afloat for the remainder of the school year — to receive thanks and complimentary root beer floats from the mayor and superintendent, as part of National Teacher Appreciation Week.
Continue reading ‘Fair Haven Teachers Thanked With Ice Cream & Soda’
by | May 6, 2024 9:35 am | Comments (2)
More music. More vendors. More sunshine.
Grand Avenue in front of Fair Haven School closed on Saturday to accommodate a bigger and more boisterous Fair Haven Day, as the neighborhood celebration — part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas and a product of a broad, neighborhood-wide coalition — marked its second year post-pandemic shutdown and hearkened back to Fair Haven festivals of a generation ago.
by | Apr 26, 2024 1:54 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Class of 2024 tree planted by John Martinez student council.
John Martinez School eighth grader Roselyn Sampedro’s dream to stay rooted to her middle school forever came to fruition Friday as she helped plant a crabapple tree — in honor of the Class of 2024, and to celebrate Arbor Day.
Continue reading ‘Class-Honoring Trees Take Root At Martinez’
by | Apr 24, 2024 8:34 am | Comments (7)
Contributed photo
Hossna Samadi.
“Twenty years of women’s hopes and dreams collapsed in one day.”
That’s how New Havener and Afghan refugee Hossna Samadi described the 2021 fall of Kabul.
She wasn’t in her home country at the time, having left Afghanistan with her family five years earlier. But the shock of seeing the Taliban return to power reverberated thousands of miles away — and sticks with Samadi as she gets to know her New Haven neighbors and explains what it’s like to be Afghan today.
by | Apr 19, 2024 2:16 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photos
Raj Kumar winds up.
Hitesh Redy, with improvised "cricket bat."
Raj Kumar lifted his right arm like a windmill against the backdrop of the former English Station power plant as he “bowled” a tennis ball towards Hitesh Redy — who didn’t need a proper cricket bat to enjoy some time in the park in Fair Haven.
A plank of wood salvaged from their Woolsey Street home would do just fine.
by | Apr 18, 2024 9:30 am | Comments (49)
Thomas Breen photos
162 James St., now owned by CitySeed.
Food truck owner Clementine Johnson (second from right) checking out the space Wednesday.
A factory building that once churned out button-down shirts and laminated credit cards could soon grow local food businesses.
by | Apr 17, 2024 2:07 pm | Comments (7)
Edgar Becerra and Josue Mauricio Arana in court.
Laura Glesby Photo
Edgar Becerra protests his former employer, MDF Painting and Power Washing, before the eviction proceedings.
A judge has ruled that Edgar Becerra and Josue Mauricio Arana must find a new place to live, ending an eviction case that sparked protests over alleged exploitation of migrant workers.
by | Apr 15, 2024 9:51 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Future pilot and current kindergartener Harmonie Santaella with sister Dhaniellie and mom Dagmar.
Making good choices, being polite, working hard, building community, and becoming student council leaders earned students and staff at John S. Martinez School recognition as “Rising Stars.”
Continue reading ‘Martinez School's Rising Stars Recognized’
by | Apr 10, 2024 8:51 pm | Comments (4)
Chief Jacobson (right) alongside Rodriguez's family.
Contributed photo
The late José Rodríguez.
Amidst a “cloud of smoke” and doubled-parked cars, a 19-year-old driver named Dajon Marques Morris struck and fatally injured a 41-year-old motorcyclist named José Rodríguez in Fair Haven.
Morris then “panicked” and, “fearing for his life,” fled the scene — only to be arrested by city cops roughly 10 months later.
by | Apr 8, 2024 9:27 am | Comments (12)
Maya McFadden Photo
Question: "Who's been shot at or knows someone who's been shot at?"
When nearly 80 students at Clinton Avenue School were asked who had heard gunshots outside their home before, almost every hand in the room went up.
Continue reading ‘School Reminder: It's OK To Not Be OK With Gun Violence’
by | Apr 5, 2024 9:33 am | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
Pedro Torres & Gladys Genovez on Thursday.
Giggling while coloring between the lines — and doing a really excellent job of it — is much more than it seems for Gladys Genovez and Pedro Torres.
by | Apr 1, 2024 12:00 pm | Comments (2)
Volunteer Coach Gervacio Ortiz with a team of soccer stars — who now have a private training space.
A Fair Haven soccer troupe got the final green light to practice their sport in a vacant River Street warehouse, after playing several rounds chasing after city approvals.
by | Mar 20, 2024 9:36 am | Comments (8)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Grand Avenue business owners Carolina Vergara and Yolanda Guzman: Customers are getting assaulted.
Grand Avenue business owners left their shops and rallied on the side of the road — in hopes the city would hear their call to clean up crime across the streets of Fair Haven.
by | Mar 11, 2024 1:33 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
RWA crew fixing a broken valve on West Elm Street.
If Fair Haveners see streaks of blue paint on the sidewalk or in front of their homes in coming weeks, it likely means that artificial intelligence has tracked them down.
Sounds ominous, but not to worry.
Continue reading ‘Water Authority Readies Citywide Pipe Survey’
by | Mar 11, 2024 12:32 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and New Reach CEO Kellyann Day on Monday.
Twenty-six Greater New Haveners at risk of sleeping on the street will have a new permanent “supportive” place to stay — thanks to part of a recent federal funding award targeted to combat homelessness.
Continue reading ‘Nonprofits Welcome Fed $ For Supportive Housing’
by | Feb 27, 2024 4:13 pm | Comments (4)
Public Works' Mike Dorsey enjoys a view of the Quinnipiac River while overseeing bridge repairs Tuesday afternoon.
The Grand Avenue bridge got a new gear — and is gearing up to reopen not just to car travel, but to boat traffic as well.