by | Feb 18, 2019 6:14 pm | Comments (8)
Noah Kim Photo
Vincent Cervoni with Kenneth Richardson III at the auction.
A mortgage-fraud scammer destroyed a property in Newhallville. Now the lot was up for grabs — and neighbors worried that another outsider would come in and continue to prey on the neighborhood.
by | Jan 28, 2019 5:22 pm | Comments (18)
Christopher Peak Photo
Emery Sykes, Amistad’s new interim principal.
Beleaguered Amistad High now has a black woman at the helm — and she is promising to tackle the charter school’s racial challenges with an honest communal reckoning.
by | Jan 25, 2019 2:50 pm | Comments (28)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
Clockwise from top left: Motherland Market’s Moore: Plastic’s stronger. Hing Wha’s Singh with reusable bags. Hooks: Good for protecting sneakers. US Deli’s Tracy: Paper rips.
If Hamden and New Haven ban single-use plastic bags, merchants may personally favor the idea, but they’re not so sure about their shoppers.
by | Jan 25, 2019 1:15 pm | Comments (2)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Brothers Ricky and Brandon Evans at their rib joint.
Do ribs and beer sound like a good combination to you?
Ricky Evans, owner of Ricky D’s Rib Shack on Winchester Avenue in Science Park, is betting that it does. So he applied for a special permit from the City Plan Commission to allow his restaurant to serve certain alcoholic beverages.
by | Jan 24, 2019 5:17 pm | Comments (9)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Gov. Ned Lamont joins helps cut the ribbon at Science Park Thursday with QCI co-founder Robert Schoelkopf, and Canaan Partners Dan Ciporin and Yale Vice Provost Peter Schiffer.
The quest to develop the supercomputers of the future is now taking place in part at the corner of Winchester and Munson, where a Yale-connected tech start-up formally has launched a new lab.
by | Jan 17, 2019 3:12 pm | Comments (50)
(Update) Morgan Barth, the school leader at Achievement First Amistad High School, has decided to step down immediately.His resignation comes hours after the Independent posted a story and a video of him shoving a student and days after a former employee criticized the working environment he fostered at Amistad in a viral video. The incidents touched off a broader community discussion about discipline practices at the nationally acclaimed Dixwell Avenue charter school.
by | Jan 11, 2019 8:49 am | Comments (6)
Allan Appel Photo
Roderick Cox by toxic factory where he worked as a young man.
The 90-day clock has begun to tick for the demolition of 71 Shelton Ave., a long-vacant 1915 building in the Winchester Repeating Arms Historic District in Newhallville.
The demolition has a silver lining: It may bring new money to revive the Goffe Street Armory, which the city has been looking to renovate and refill with new uses.
Continue reading ‘Demolition Turns Into Historic Opportunity’
by | Jan 4, 2019 1:42 pm | Comments (1)
New Haven Land Trust photo
Ida Ruth Wells with then-Land Trust Director Chris Randall in 2011.
Thomas Breen photos
The corner of County Street and Henry Street, to be renamed Ida Ruth Wells Corner.
The street corner outside of the Prescott Bush senior apartment complex will be renamed in honor of a late neighborhood stalwart who promoted community gardening at public housing complexes.
Continue reading ‘Corner To Be Named For Public-Housing Hero’
by | Dec 23, 2018 10:08 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen Photos
Kim Harris (above); Amy Marx (below).
In 2018, Kim Harris and Amy Marx imagined a better New Haven. They teamed up with determined people. Then they made it happen.
And they’re just getting started.
by | Dec 21, 2018 1:12 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen photos
Recent Mandy purchases in Newhallville: 38 Townsend St., 247 County St., 591 Sherman Pkwy., and 100 Newhall St..
A single-family Colonial in Fair Haven. A two-story condo in the Annex. A three-family house in Newhallville. A 21-unit complex in Edgewood.
Those are four of 87 New Haven properties that the Netz/Mandy Management organization took over in 2018, a year that saw the operation acquire over 170 units and spend almost $13 million in expanding its local real estate empire of low-income rental apartments.
by | Dec 19, 2018 8:32 am | Comments (3)
Allan Appel Photo
Zelema Harris is an entrepreneurial, college-educated accountant working a decently paying job, and the mom of three children.
Yet when serious heart ailments followed the birth of her youngest, and then depression and divorce, Harris found herself at times living in her car — while the kids were with the father — and telling the kids that mommy’s just working late and would be home in the morning.
In November she was on the verge of homelessness, because her salary was not quite enough for New Haven’s expensive housing. So she called United Way’s emergency 211 number.
In the old days, she would have been sent to inquire, on her own, if there were room in the area’s few family shelters.
Instead she was diverted to a case worker at the New Reach homeless agency. The worker determined that Harris should get an emergency infusion of about $700 for an apartment deposit and security payment help so she and her girls could move into their own place.
Continue reading ‘How One Mom Made It “Home For The Holidays”’
by | Dec 7, 2018 1:18 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photos
New homeowners Anneisha Haye and Andres Concha-Brito; 335 W. Division and 436 Huntington.
Andres Concha-Brito spends his days installing carpets in Fairfield County mansions. Anneisha Haye spends her days overseeing housekeeping at a Whalley Avenue hotel.
Both can now return from a hard day’s work to homes of their own. They’re among the city’s latest property purchasers, thanks to a decades-old nonprofit that helps working class New Haveners become first-time homeowners.
by | Dec 5, 2018 8:58 am | Comments (3)
Christopher Peak Photo
Principals Rosalind Garcia and Heriberto Cordero, at Monday’s school finance meeting.
In an unexpected bonus for the city’s cash-strapped public schools, the state offered an extra $340,000 to help two elementaries complete a turnaround.
Continue reading ‘State Steps Up Funding For Turnaround Schools’
by | Nov 30, 2018 1:51 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen Photo
Byrne-backed Canal Trail Women’s Empowerment Mural.
Christopher Peak Photo
Outgoing Byrne chief Edwards on Newhallville “clean sweep.”
Newhallville is on the path to safe neighborhood success; it just has to keep doing what it’s doing and hold “partners” accountable.
That charge and challenge came from a watchdog group tasked with providing the neighborhood technical help — and tough love — in spending a federal crime reduction grant.
by | Nov 30, 2018 1:09 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
224 Lloyd St.: One of Mandy Management’s latest acquisitions.
Local mega-landlord Mandy Management continued on a property-buying tear, while one of its controversial housing-development plans underwent a parking change.
by | Nov 28, 2018 2:25 pm | Comments (28)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Mayor Harp at the Newhallville Community Management Team meeting.
In a twist on her current budget roadshow, a Harp administration official asked neighbors for ideas about how to address the city’s fiscal challenges.
A hand went right up, and a suggestion followed: Stop budgeting state money the city doesn’t have and isn’t going to get.
by | Nov 26, 2018 8:31 am | Comments (10)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Outgoing Newhallvile Safe Neighborhood Initiative Project Manager Arthur Edwards (in back) with governance committee members.
One year after the long-awaited implementation of a $1 million federal grant to make Newhallville a safer place, its governance committee is examining its progress and on the hunt for a new project manager.
Continue reading ‘“Safe Neighborhood” Quest Looks To Year 2’
by | Nov 14, 2018 8:42 am | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
22 Hallock Ave.
A local mega-landlord increased its City Point footprint with the recent acquisition of an apartment complex and an adjacent two-family home on Hallock Avenue.
Continue reading ‘Latest Sales: Mandy Expands In City Point’
by | Nov 12, 2018 2:13 pm | Comments (0)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Jolyn Walker recounts her husband’s death and last moments of joy.
A widow found that the process of watching a loved one die can have moments of beauty. And an amateur bodybuilder’s quest for an idealized outward manifestation of masculinity led him down a destructive path of disordered eating and exercising.
by | Nov 9, 2018 2:05 pm | Comments (1)
Contributed photo.
Tyrick B. Keyes.
Though his life was cut short, Tyrick B. Keyes will always be remembered at the corner of Bassett and Newhall streets.
by | Nov 9, 2018 8:15 am | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photo
94 East Rock Rd.
An East Rock home recently sold for over $1 million — still a rare feat for New Haven residences, even in the East Rock neighborhood’s pricey housing market.
Continue reading ‘Latest Sales: East Rock Home Buy Tops $1M’
by | Nov 8, 2018 1:10 pm | Comments (2)
MOLLY MONTGOMERY PHOTO
Achievement First debate team on Wednesday.
The midterm elections left debate team members at Achievement First Amistad High School cold – and questioning their party allegiances.
Continue reading ‘“He’s Playing Both Sides ... Not Doing A Good Job At Either”’
by | Nov 7, 2018 4:00 pm | Comments (4)
Steele checks in with vote pullers Alex Perry, Sr. and Alex Perry, Jr. in the basement of Varick church.
Thomas Breen photo
Ann Robinson with pastor and vote-puller Kelcy Steele.
When New Haveners like Ann Robinson produced a 23,278-vote city victory margin Tuesday to elect Connecticut’s next governor, they weren’t thinking as much about Ned Lamont. They were thinking about Donald Trump.
And in Robinson’s case, about Greenville, N.C.
by | Nov 6, 2018 5:14 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photo
St. Matthew’s Unison Free Will Baptist Church at 400 Dixwell Ave.
St. Matthew’s Church Pastor Kevin Hardy at City Hall on Thursday night.
The city is on its way to renaming a Dixwell Avenue corner after an historic, community-service-oriented local Baptist congregation that dubs itself “the church that cares.”
Continue reading ‘Dixwell Corner To Be Renamed For “Church That Cares”’
by | Oct 31, 2018 12:56 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photo
722 Orchard St.
A faith-based nonprofit developer sold a rehabbed Orchard Street home to a low-income buyer, marking its fifth gut rehab and affordable housing conversion completed on a single block between Charles Street and Henry Street.
Continue reading ‘Latest Deals: Beulah’s 5th Rehab On Block’