by | Jul 28, 2022 8:22 pm | Comments (5)
Laura Glesby Photo
The former and future Barbell Club.
(Updated Friday 2:12 PM) 160 Carlisle St. will once again buzz with learning and community, thanks to $1.5 million in state funding allocated to revive the shuttered home of the former Barbell Club.
Continue reading ‘State OKs $1.5M To Rebuild Trowbridge Square's Barbell Club’
by | Jul 15, 2022 2:28 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen photos
Chief Jacobson: Police need community's consent.
At Thursday's top cop-community meetup.
Make sure city police officers are well trained in how to provide basic medical care to detainees in distress — as well as compassion to everyone they interact with on their beat.
Police Chief Karl Jacobson heard those recommendations, and many more, during one of his first community meetings since becoming the city’s top cop.
Continue reading ‘Chief-Community Confab Calls For Compassion’
by | Jul 13, 2022 3:47 pm | Comments (16)
Thomas Breen photo
Youssef Zaimsassi in his first-floor condo's bathroom: "Can't tell you how many times we changed the ceiling."
Dripping water in the basement of 3 Cassius St.
Drip. Drip. Drip … is the sound that Youssef Zaimsassi hears in his Cassius Street condo’s bathroom and basement every time his upstairs neighbor takes a shower.
From that leak, he claimed, have come mold, rotted wood, a busted ceiling, a stubbornly empty rental unit — and endless frustration that he can’t get the second-floor property owner, or the city, to do anything about it.
Continue reading ‘Wet Ceiling Creates Cassius Condo Conflict’
by | Jul 11, 2022 10:12 am | Comments (1)
Luis Ortegon Photos
Nine families are in need of temporary housing after 55 firefighters spent hours battling a blaze in the Hill neighborhood.
by | Jul 11, 2022 8:56 am | Comments (4)
Laura Glesby File Photo
Darrisha McIver outside the Barbell, where she competed in double dutch, acted in plays, and got her first job.
Visions for a revived community center glimmered in Trowbridge Square alongside the fireflies, as alders, city officials, and Hill neighbors discussed the future of the building that once housed the Barbell Club.
by | Jul 7, 2022 8:52 am | Comments (1)
Jordan Ashby Photo
Shauniqua Davis brought her daughter Ivana Lewis for a community paint session.
Hill neighbors came into the Wilson Branch Library to make art — and walked out ready to wear it.
Continue reading ‘The Clothes Make The Canvas At Wilson Branch Library Community Event’
by | Jul 6, 2022 11:35 am | Comments (5)
Laura Glesby Photo
Leslie Radcliffe: "We need more people like you" on the police force.
“Did the lieutenant convince you?” Leslie Radcliffe called out to Tiemarcie Ramos, who’d walked past the Hill North police substation in search of his mother’s stolen garbage can.
Ramos shrugged. Radcliffe wasn’t satisfied.
Continue reading ‘Cops, Neighbors Patrol Hill -- Seeking Cops’
by | Jun 29, 2022 4:51 pm | Comments (2)
Laura Glesby Photo
Darrisha McIver outside Trowbrdge Square's former -- and future? -- Barbell Club.
When Darrisha McIver walks by the abandoned city building that once housed Hill Youth Cooperative Services (HCYS), she remembers jumping double dutch as a kid, staffing “The Store” full of after-school snacks, and growing up to become a camp counselor kids looked up to.
She also sees a hope for the future: a rebuilt community center where neighborhood kids can build confidence and learn life skills, the way she once did.
by | Jun 27, 2022 5:03 pm | Comments (5)
Yash Roy Photos
Elicker bikes across Orange while U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Alder Carmen Rodriguez, neighbor Thomasine Shaw, and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz walk down the pedestrian crosswalk.
A Congresswoman, a mayor, an alder, a lieutenant governor, and a longtime Hill resident crossed Orange Street Monday morning — because, after a half-century, they finally could.
by | Jun 21, 2022 11:29 am | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen photo
Empty storefront at 846 Congress, now approved for residential conversion.
A New Jersey-based landlord won permission to convert two vacant Congress Avenue storefronts into two two-bedroom apartments, in the latest example of property owners around the city seeking to change empty groundfloor places to shop into occupied groundfloor places to live.
by | Jun 16, 2022 8:19 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen Photo
Gov. Lamont (center) at Brazi's lunch with local clergy.
At reelection campaign stops with local faith leaders and elderly residents, Gov. Ned Lamont faced a flurry of questions about how best to keep New Haveners safe — from gun violence and reckless drivers alike.
by | Jun 15, 2022 1:29 pm | Comments (5)
Jonathan Torres walks up to receive a citizenship award at Tuesday's graduation.
Yash Roy Photos
Guihovany Perez, Alexis Smith, Jonathan Torres, Destiny Vasquez, and Mauriztio Wallen wait to enter the auditorium for commencement.
Jonathan Torres wasn’t destined to graduate high school: He got in trouble at Hillhouse. Then he got arrested.
He found his way 14 months ago to Riverside Academy, an alternative high school in the New Haven district. And he not only made it to graduation Tuesday: He was the class speaker.
by | Jun 14, 2022 11:15 am | Comments (3)
After ten years of serving Hill Central Music Academy in various instructor and administrative roles, Nicole Brown will next helm the the school as its newly approved principal.
by | Jun 13, 2022 2:34 pm | Comments (0)
Yash Roy Photo
Gov. Lamont with LULAC families at Monday's announcement.
Meghan Gonzalez, her husband, and three kids had been homeless for 5 years before earlier this year they got “the miracle call”: they would finally have a roof over their heads.
Gonzalez’s family is one of 20 in Connecticut that have benefited from a first-in-the-nation “Head Start on Housing” program tying the federal Head Start pre-school program with the state’s Department of Housing to offer rent vouchers to vulnerable families with young kids.
by | Jun 6, 2022 10:50 am | Comments (1)
Olivia Gross Photo
Sound School students Jacob Smith and Jenae Epps at Sunday's block party.
Fifty neighbors gathered in the sun on Sunday to celebrate the City Point and Hill communities with popsicles, bikes, and boats.
Continue reading ‘Block Party Brings Students, Cyclists To The Sound’
by | May 25, 2022 4:40 pm | Comments (3)
HFD
Hamden firefighters on scene Wednesday on Colonial Drive.
Boomer, safe from harm.
Thanks to firefighter Nelson Hwang, Boomer the pit bull mix is fine.
by | May 18, 2022 4:05 pm | Comments (1)
The three-family house at 14 Elliot.
A judge noted that he wouldn’t want to live in a rented room with a leaky ceiling, loose stairs, and a perennially clogged bathroom sink — and then OK’d the eviction of a tenant who cited those conditions when explaining why she stopped paying rent.
Continue reading ‘Rent Trumps Repairs In Elliot Street Eviction’
by | May 6, 2022 3:56 pm | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden Photos
Students gasp at Renfrow's two football rings ...
... then notice the size of his hands.
After discovering a motivational Instagram page run by Hill Central School students, pro footballer Justin Renfrow popped into town to offer some real-life inspiration.
by | Apr 27, 2022 4:54 pm | Comments (32)
Thomas Breen photos
"Don't come into New Haven and shit it up": City Building Official Jim Turcio (right) lays down the building-safety law for landlord Bart Salyga.
Fire Marshall Scott Dillon checks in on two second-floor tenants.
A team of city building, housing, and fire safety inspectors descended on rooming houses in the Hill illegally crammed with nearly 100 tenants — and left the buildings’ New York-based landlord with orders to reduce occupancies, fix code violations, and treat New Haven’s immigrant and college-student tenants with more respect.
by | Apr 18, 2022 1:42 pm | Comments (2)
Courtney Luciana Photos
The scene of the fire on Sunday night.
Next-door neighbor Angel Ojeda surveys the damage on Monday.
Forty-five New Haven Firefighters responded to a call at 9:22 p.m. on Sunday to extinguish a blaze at 150 Columbus Ave. that left 11 people homeless.
by | Apr 13, 2022 2:03 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen photo
New Orange Street intersection, slated to open on Monday.
Thomas Breen file photo
Donna Hall and Development Commissioner David Valentino on Sept. 2021 walking tour.
Goodbye, flashing lights and detours. Hello, new protected and signalized intersection: Starting next week, a long-in-the-works Orange Street crossroads connecting the Hill and downtown will finally open — and officials will begin pursuing the next step of “Downtown Crossing.”
Continue reading ‘Orange Intersection Ready; Temple Bridge Next’
by | Apr 8, 2022 11:25 am | Comments (18)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Reggie Gibson cleaning "the bridge."
Nip bottles, candy wrappers and cigarette butts cluttered the road. Until Reggie Gibson showed up with his broom.
by | Apr 1, 2022 4:00 pm | Comments (13)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Amid ghosts, Jason Buddington hangs out on Congress after APT visit.
Jason Buddington had just picked up his bottles of methadone for the week, and kept an eye out for temptations that could threaten to return him to a life on the streets.
by | Apr 1, 2022 3:21 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Students get to creating in new art space.
A new home for student art making, self-expression, and relaxation opened Thursday at the Boys and Girls Club of New Haven.
by | Mar 31, 2022 5:38 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Common Ground alum Crystal Fernandez at Kimberly Field planning gathering.
When Crystal Fernandez returned to the Hill with her four sons three years ago, she decided she would be a part of the change she wanted to see in her neighborhood by starting with Kimberly Field.
Continue reading ‘Hill Native Comes Home -- & Signs Up For Duty’