by | Jul 17, 2018 4:44 pm | Comments (33)
Markeshia Ricks Photos
DuBois-Walton and Mayor Harp cut ribbon on new Mill River Crossing.
The former Farnam Courts public housing development has traded its dilapidated townhouses for high-rise living, a new name, and views of the Q Bridge and East Rock that rival some of the fanciest digs downtown.
by | Jun 22, 2018 10:49 am | Comments (1)
Allan Appel Photo
Some came for the memories and to see old friends.
Others came to introduce a fourth and even fifth generation of local Italian-Americans to enduring traditions.
Almost everyone came to taste the sausage and peppers, the pasta e fagioli, and the fried mozzarella
Yet others come to plumb the mysteries of the secret sauce.
by | Jun 20, 2018 1:35 pm | Comments (8)
Google Maps
Grasso Boulevard, planned site for new “opportunity school.”
Soon-to-be-vacant schools in Wooster Square and City Point could host cleaning materials, security camera feeds, science kits and other storage next year, under a money-saving plan to shift employees out of leased buildings.
by | Jun 20, 2018 12:51 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen Photo
DOC staffers Marvin Anderson (right) and Eric Ellison (center) at Tuesday’s Downtown-Wooster Square management team meeting.
Downtown neighbors and city officials don’t disapprove of the prisoner reentry work done by a state parole office that is slated to relocate to Grand Avenue in a few months. They’re just frustrated with the location chosen and the lack of communication between the state and the new site’s neighbors.
by | Jun 20, 2018 8:07 am | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
Paola Morales, after she spoke.
Four years ago Paola Morales came to New Haven from Colombia. The only English she knew was “yes” and “no” and friends communicated with her – or tried to – through Google Translator.
She persevered with language and more, and finished High School in the Community (HSC) a year early. She has already completed a semester of courses at the University of New Haven.
She was back Tuesday evening, wearing a white gown, and a broad smile of pride as the valedictorian of the 2018 graduating class of HSC
Continue reading ‘Trailblazers And Ceiling-Breakers Hailed At HSC Graduation’
by | Jun 12, 2018 2:46 pm | Comments (4)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Dimitri Rimsky surveys remnants of Hamilton Clock Factory.
Before the new owners of the historic Hamilton Street Clock Factory seal it up and begin the arduous process of turning it into artist lofts, a few ghosts returned to haunt the buildings abandoned halls.
Continue reading ‘Artists Go Back In Time At Ex-Clock Factory’
by | Jun 8, 2018 2:01 pm | Comments (1)
A new documentary about New Haven’s Little Italy is part fond recollections, part Ken Burns, and fully committed to the stories of everyday neighborhood residents.
Continue reading ‘New Film Tells Oral History Of Wooster Square’
by | May 25, 2018 8:18 am | Comments (39)
Christopher Peak Photos
Mona Berman holds up 150 signatures in opposition.
Wooster Square residents question project organizers.
Wooster Square residents shouted each other down, hurled accusations of racism and NIMBYism, and brought some close to tears over a proposal to bring an overnight shelter for homeless youth to a struggling commercial strip of Grand Avenue.
by | May 23, 2018 8:01 am | Comments (13)
CROSSKEY ARCHITECTS
Rendering of the future Clock Shop Lofts.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Alder Reveiz with developer Reed before the vote.
The historic Hamilton Street clock factory will get a new lease as an apartment complex on life now that city alders have struck a deal that balances the city’s need for affordable housing with a developer’s need for tax relief to make an affordable-housing project viable.
by | May 4, 2018 8:09 am | Comments (20)
Rendering of Clock Shop Lofts.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Festa: Good project. Tax break’s too big.
Let’s talk numbers. But let’s talk quickly.
That was the upshot of a meeting between alders and a developer about how much of a tax break the city can afford on a plan to turn an historic clock factory into 130 affordable apartments.
by | Apr 25, 2018 1:04 pm | Comments (15)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Trash behind 873-887 Grand Ave.
A landlord amassing thousands of dollars in blight fines on a deteriorating building he owns in Westville is suing the city for harassment over another property he owns at the edge of Wooster Square. The city’s suing him back.
by | Apr 25, 2018 12:08 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photo
Next stop: 620 Grand Ave.
The state Department of Correction’s (DOC) planned relocation of its parole office from Westville to Grand Avenue is moving forward despite city concerns that it conflicts with the development vision of the Mill River District.
by | Apr 23, 2018 8:39 am | Comments (3)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Attendees try their waists at hula hooping …
… while St. Luke’s Steel Band keeps the crowd on it’s feet.
The cherry blossom trees hadn’t quite popped, but it seemed that spring had — finally, maybe — Sunday just in time for the 45th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Wooster Square.
Continue reading ‘Mother Nature Smiles On Cherry Blossom Festival’
by | Apr 16, 2018 1:11 pm | Comments (8)
Allan Appel Photo
The transformers on the Huges Place side of 311 Greene St.
Three years ago United Illuminating moved its high pole-mounted transformer banks so close to Ellen Ryerson and Bonnie Rosenberg’s historic 311 Greene St. building, no painting, scraping, and pointing work could be done without violating federal health and safety rules.
Yet the work must be done on the historic facades of these Wooster Square landmarks, or they’ll deteriorate.
So what’s to be done? Who’s to pay?
by | Apr 13, 2018 7:50 am | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen Photos
Old C. Cowles Company building on Water Street, acquired by U-Haul.
U-Haul’s Levi Parmerter and Patrick Keefe with neighbors.
Starting Aug. 1, Wooster Square residents will have a new neighbor on Water Street offering 200 self-storage units, upwards of 69 rental vans, 25 new jobs — and some bike racks and a hydration station — at a refurbished factory that has been vacant for the past three years.
by | Apr 10, 2018 12:02 pm | Comments (11)
Allan Appel Photo
Developer Kraus with rehab rendering.
Not every environmental clean-up site involves radium.
It does if you’re cleaning up a centuries-old factory where generations of “radium girls” labored to make clock dials glow in the dark.
by | Mar 29, 2018 4:16 pm | Comments (0)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Chapman Wednesday at her last Historic Wooster Square Association Inc. meeting as president
Elsie Chapman never intended to be president of the Historic Wooster Square Association. She was just helping a founding member of the association navigate how to use email.
by | Mar 26, 2018 3:27 pm | Comments (14)
DEAN SAKAMOTO ARCHITECTS
Design for the planned new canal tunnel.
A year after a breakthrough in negotiations with abutting property owners, the city is wrapping up legal loose ends on plans to construct the last leg of the Farmington Canal Trail in New Haven.
by | Mar 1, 2018 4:10 pm | Comments (13)
CROSSKEY ARCHITECTS
Rendering of the planned renovation.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Radcliffe: “One man’s trash is another man’s junk collection.”
Should the city choose artists as a special class of renters needing affordable housing?
Leslie Radcliffe posed that question as the city and an out-of-town developer prepare to transform a former clock factory into 130 apartments for artists.
by | Feb 28, 2018 12:58 pm | Comments (2)
Aneurin Canham-Clyne
Justin Elicker, Russell Moore, and Amelia Reese Masterson at the grand opening of New Haven Farms and New Haven Land Trust’s new offices.
“Nonprofits don’t often work well together,” Justin Elicker said at the grand opening of a new working space Tuesday night to be shared by the New Haven Land Trust and New Haven Farms.
Well, at 817 Grand Ave. they now do.
Continue reading ‘Land Trust, NH Farms, CitySeed Become Roomies’
by | Feb 27, 2018 2:28 pm | Comments (13)
Virginia Blaisdell Photo
The late Sal and Flo Consiglio.
Pretty soon, they may be lining up for hours outside Sally’s Pizza in, say, Austin or L.A., not just on Wooster Street.
Continue reading ‘New Sally’s Owner Plans National Expansion’
by | Feb 19, 2018 12:07 pm | Comments (47)
Crosskey Architects
Rendering of the planned renovation.
A developer is seeking a 15-year tax break and $400,000 in city environmental clean-up help to transform a long-vacant clock factory complex on Hamilton Street into 130 low- and moderate-income apartments for artists.
by | Feb 7, 2018 5:20 pm | Comments (3)
Aneurin Canham-Clyne Photo
Ronnetta Holmes shows patches and inadequate drains on the roof of the LEAP building.
Patches won’t fix LEAP’s roof. But a new $75,000 grant will.
by | Jan 25, 2018 3:34 pm | Comments (5)
Christopher Peak Photo
630 Chapel St., Spinnaker’s contested property.
Enough already, a judge told a property development company that has filed multiple rounds of litigation to block potential competitors from building apartments at the downtown edge of Wooster Square.
by | Jan 9, 2018 2:26 pm | Comments (16)
David Adam Realty
Rendering of the 44 Olive Street development.
The new developer of a Wooster Square property said he plans to move forward on schedule to build 299 new apartments and 6,000 square feet of stores as planned on land at the gateway to Downtown.
Continue reading ‘New Owner Stays Course On Wooster Sq. Project’