19-Year-Old Shot Dead In The Hill
by | Nov 20, 2023 2:36 pm | Comments (7)
A 19-year-old New Havener named Jovani Ortiz died on Monday from injuries he sustained after getting shot Sunday night on Downes Street in the Hill.
The Hill
Suburban Fundraisers Sing For Hill's Tiny Homes
by | Nov 20, 2023 9:10 am | Comments (21)
Church to Elicker: "Turn on the heat"
Sixty tiny-home supporters at a church in North Branford lifted their voices in song. It was about electricity and housing affordability, and aimed at New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.
Continue reading ‘Suburban Fundraisers Sing For Hill's Tiny Homes’
Sign Installed As Kimberly Park "Friends" Keep Cleaning
by | Nov 14, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (8)
Maya McFadden Photo
Hill youngsters and Crystal Fernandez install signage at Kimberly Park.
Ten-year-old Cristian Estrada and his brothers Joshua, 9, and Jeremiah, 5, took turns plunging a shovel into the dirt on Kimberly Avenue to bring more beauty to their neighborhood park — this time in the form of installing a Friends of Kimberly Park sign.
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Housing Authority To Buy Ex-Church Street South Site For $21M
by | Nov 13, 2023 10:21 pm | Comments (56)
Laura Glesby / Northland photos
Dealmakers: Housing authority's Karen DuBois-Walton and Northland's Larry Gottesdiener.
Thomas Breen photo
Future looks a bit brighter for Church St. South wasteland (pictured).
The city’s public housing authority has reached an agreement with the Massachusetts-based owners of the former Church Street South site to purchase the vacant expanse across from Union Station and build it up into a new mixed-income housing complex.
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Tiny Homes Hit With 2nd Violation Notice
by | Nov 1, 2023 4:26 pm | Comments (37)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Orlando Sanchez: Housed for now, as cold weather sets in.
The Elicker administration has sent a second letter demanding that six newly constructed mini-shelters be dismantled in a Hill backyard where 57-year-old Orlando Sanchez and roughly a half-dozen fellow unhoused people have moved in.
City Tells Tiny Home Builders To Cease And Desist
by | Oct 27, 2023 6:25 pm | Comments (53)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Suki and Todd Godek, recently moved in to a Rosette St. tiny home.
The Elicker administration has sent a cease-and-desist letter to two activist homeowners in the Hill — telling them to take down the handful of tiny homes they’ve already constructed in their backyard, and to not build any more until they get the proper city approvals.
The property owners, meanwhile, are refusing to remove the newly built shelters, arguing that the privately owned land belongs to those finding refuge on it.
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New Clemente Principal Hired; 3 Veteran Teachers Retire
by | Oct 26, 2023 4:28 pm | Comments (14)
Maya McFadden photo
Incoming Roberto Clemente principal Adela Jorge.
A new principal is en route to Roberto Clemente Academy, thanks to the Board of Education’s appointment of longtime Waterbury administrator Adela Jorge to fill the shoes of the soon-to-retire Mia Edmonds-Duff.
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Ex-School To Become Winter Overnight Shelter
by | Oct 24, 2023 4:35 pm | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photo
The ex-Strong School site at 130 Orchard.
The vacant former Strong School on Orchard Street in the Hill will reopen its doors to the public this winter as a 47-space warming center — thanks to a Board of Education vote in support of creating more cold-weather shelter options for the city’s homeless.
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6 Tiny Houses Built In Hill Backyard
by | Oct 24, 2023 12:21 pm | Comments (59)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Amistad's Mark Colville, with tiny houses now ready for "economic refugees" at 203 Rosette St.
Nora Grace-Flood file photo
Just under a dozen tents have been cleared from a backyard homeless encampment on Rosette Street to make space for six new “tiny homes,” the latest local experiment in providing emergency shelter to those most in need.
Stalwart Hill Public Servant Dies
by | Oct 16, 2023 8:02 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas MacMillan file photo
Former Alder and State Rep. Andrea Jackson-Brooks.
Andrea Jackson-Brooks, a Hill alder and state representative whose decades-long career in politics earned her widespread admiration for her commitment to public service, passed away on Sunday. She was 79.
Housing Authority Lands $500K For Robert T. Wolfe, "Union Square" Planning
by | Oct 11, 2023 4:27 pm | Comments (5)
The city’s housing authority has been awarded $500,000 in federal funds to help plan for how best to revitalize the Robert T. Wolfe apartment complex and the surrounding community around Union Station.
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Construction Resumes After Partial Collapse
by | Oct 11, 2023 9:02 am | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photo
Back at work at 188 Lafayette on Tuesday.
A hard-hatted construction crew is back at work building up 112 new apartments in the Hill — four months after a concrete-pouring accident caused the building’s second floor to cave in, injuring eight workers.
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Roberto Clemente Principal To Retire
by | Oct 4, 2023 11:47 am | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden photo
Principal Mia Edmonds-Duff, with her NHPS longevity award.
It wasn’t until Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy Principal Mia Edmonds-Duff looked over at a “longevity plaque” on her office desk thanking her for three decades of work in NHPS that she thought to herself: “I was having so much fun I didn’t realize how far along I was.”
With that revelation, Edmonds-Duff has decided that, after 38 years working for the city’s public school district, it’s now time to retire.
Internet Access Plan Embraces The Market
by | Oct 4, 2023 8:29 am | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photo
City Economic Development Officer Dean Mack: "We're moving away from the municipal option. We are right now focusing on more of a market-driven option."
New Haven is still trying to bridge the digital divide, and has turned to the private market to do the heavy lifting.
Shutdown Averters Seek Gov't Funding Fix
by | Oct 2, 2023 5:46 pm | Comments (8)
Laura Glesby Photo
End Hunger Connecticut's Lucy Nolan: A shutdown would be "horrendous" for families in need of food.
If the federal government shuts down, state agencies and local organizations can only do so much to stop children from going hungry, seniors from shivering in the winter, and healthcare centers from shuttering.
Kickball, & Push-Ups, & Staying Active In PE
by | Oct 2, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Best friends Monserrat Martinez and Dazani Hough: Ready for gym class.
As a white ball bounced towards Monserrat Martinez, the Roberto Clemente school sixth grader locked eyes with it — and then kicked it with all her might, sending it across the gymnasium and giving her the chance to sprint towards the safety of first base.
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Scenes From The Polls: Kids Count In Newhallville
by , and | Sep 12, 2023 3:59 pm | Comments (9)
Laura Glesby photo
Star Gilliams (center) with Harris & Tucker pollsters Memori Jones, Kauren Gaines, Shamar Sheppard at Lincoln-Bassett in Newhallville: "I'm concerned about what happens to this neighborhood."
Thomas Breen photo
Erica Rodriguez and Isiah Miller, side by side, but for different candidates, on Chatham Street in Fair Haven.
Allan Appel photo
Sam Tolkin, with 3-year-old Oliver, on Townsend Ave in Morris Cove: Brennan's "got the chutzpah to say how important education is.”
Thomas Breen photo
Barbara Dozier, at Roberto Clemente in the Hill: "It's always important to vote."
(Updated) Shamar Sheppard peered up at Jazmine Williamson, a clipboard and pencil in hand. “Did you vote today?” he asked. “Who did you vote for?”
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Lamberton Bridge Encampment Bulldozed
by | Aug 14, 2023 2:42 pm | Comments (34)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
The Lamberton encampment, now cleared by the state.
Between ten and twenty people living under a Lamberton Street bridge by the Metro-North train tracks in the Hill were sent packing Monday morning after the state declared the site unsafe and cleared the campers’ belongings.
Mustangs Saddle Up With Gorilla Lemonade Sponsor
by | Aug 10, 2023 12:38 pm | Comments (0)
Lisa Reisman photo
Gorilla Lemonade's Kristen Threatt and CT Mustang owner and right guard Jose "Conie" Matos at new Hill mural.
Justen Wilson held up a finger on his right hand. It wouldn’t bend. It won’t for several months, until the off-season when he’ll have surgery. He strained the tendon making a tackle on the gridiron.
Continue reading ‘Mustangs Saddle Up With Gorilla Lemonade Sponsor’
Trowbridge Campaign Talk: Homelessness, & Homelessness
by | Aug 9, 2023 12:53 pm | Comments (18)
Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Elicker speaking to a voter through a Ring camera intercom in the Hill.
Marisol Pagan and Jose Lugo stood on the sidewalk beside Trowbridge Square’s wrought iron fence as they urged Mayor Justin Elicker to do something about the marked increase in homeless people staying, and publicly urinating, in the Hill public park.
On the other side of that fence, Greg Abraham took a break from sipping on a can of paper bag-held beer to pace out for the mayor just how small his last apartment was — and to explain how he couldn’t afford the room’s rising rent, and is now spending his nights at a Grand Avenue shelter.
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Elicker: Mayor & Alders Should Serve 4-Year Terms
by | Aug 9, 2023 11:28 am | Comments (27)
Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Elicker knocking doors, and shaking hands, with Hill Alders Kampton Singh, Ron Hurt, and Carmen Rodriguez.
Two-year terms result in too many elections — which push municipal leaders too frequently from governance to campaigning, and create “fatigue” among voters.
So argued Mayor Justin Elicker as he articulated his support for a newly finalized ballot question that, if approved in November, would bump up mayor and alder terms in office from two to four years each.
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Welfare Check Took A Turn, With A Knife
by | Aug 7, 2023 3:27 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photo
Officer Tyler Evans: "With a scene like that, my main thing is: Stay calm."
A young woman who had reportedly struggled with thoughts of hurting herself — whose father had reached out to the cops for help — ran down Davenport Avenue away from Officer Tyler Evans.
She then turned, took a knife from the front of her pants, and plunged it into her own body.
Wilson Library Music Open Hour Reverberates With Joy
by | Aug 3, 2023 9:09 am | Comments (2)
Eleanor Polak Photos
Jakki Cousins and Azora Lindsay at the keyboard at Wilson library.
Hanhe Choi and Azora Lindsay ran around the Music Room at Wilson Branch Library like kids in a candy store.
But instead of tooth-rotting sweets, the 23-month-old and 2‑year-old kiddos were focused on a range of keyboards, drums, and shakers, as pleasing to the ears as candy would be to the tongue.
The toddlers rushed from instrument to instrument, touching everything they could and figuring out how to create the loudest sound. Before long, the room filled up with a cacophony of joy.
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Private Lactation Room Opens At Union Station
by | Aug 1, 2023 2:04 pm | Comments (11)
Asher Joseph photo
Robert Farrow, Jr. and LaKayla Farrow celebrate the new lactation room at Union Station with daughters Harmony and Heaven.
After years of struggling to find a private space to breastfeed her children, LaKayla Farrow can now do so in peace in a newly opened room on the second floor of Union Station.
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Drumroll Please: It’s Bobby Mapp
by | Jul 27, 2023 9:02 am | Comments (1)
Eleanor Polak Photos
"Rockin' Richard" and Bobby Mapp at The Towers.
A local music legend got his due Wednesday night during a celebration at The Towers of Bobby Mapp, who was the original drummer for The Five Satins and is now a resident at the senior living community located at 18 Tower Ln.