Hailing Yale-city deal, clockwise from top left: Dolores Colon, Jahmal Henderson, Abby Feldman, Alejandro Rojas, Ken Suzuki, Rebecca Corbett.
A deal for Yale to increase voluntary payments to the city by $52 million over six years — and design and control a pedestrian plaza on High Street — won a key preliminary aldermanic approval, as supporters hailed a potential turning point in town-gown relations.
Patricia Wallace: Seniors, renters feeling the squeeze.
Even if the city phases in higher property values over the next five years, landlords will likely pass along higher rents next year — if the mill rate doesn’t drop further.
New York-based developer Nitsan Ben-Horin offered those words of caution during a virtual “town hall” about the mayor’s proposed Fiscal Year 2022 – 23 (FY23) budget. And he wasn’t alone, as landlords sounded an alarm.
The Corsair: FY23 tax bill with phase-in: $1.1M. Full FY23 tax bill at lower mill rate without phase-in: $1.6M.
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360 State. Phased-in FY23 tax bill: $2.2M. Full FY23 tax bill at lower mill rate: $2.4M.
Mandy-controlled four-family home at 310 W. Division. Phased-in FY23 tax bill: $6.3K. Full FY23 tax bill at lower mill rate: $7.8K.
(News analysis) A tax-assessment phase-in aimed at helping struggling homeowners would end up reaping some of the biggest bucks for two other groups in town: luxury housing developers and poverty megalandlords.
Watching YouTube or surfing the Web during class? Better watch out: New Haven public school teachers can now look at what students are up to on their computers when they should be doing school work, thanks to a recently adopted classroom online surveillance program primed for a three-year run.
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Thomas Breen |
Feb 16, 2022 1:03 pm
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Inside Adult Ed at 540 Ella T. Grasso Blvd.
The city’s Adult Ed program is likely staying put in its rundown Ella T. Grasso Boulevard building through 2025 — as alders reluctantly advanced a renewed lease that would see rent jump by tens of thousands of dollars each year, and that calls on the new landlord to repair an old HVAC system, leaky ceilings, and damaged carpeting.
High at Elm: Slated to become Yale-controlled ped plaza.
A deal for Yale to increase voluntary payments to the city by $52 million over the next six years — and design, convert, and control a publicly owned pedestrian plaza on High Street — has taken its first formal step towards potential approval, in the form of a package of legislation newly submitted by the mayor to the Board of Alders.
And just like that, there is now a new city department — charged with finding a data-driven, coordinated response to a vast array of social issues, from homelessness to mental health disorders to drug addiction to prison reentry.
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Thomas Breen |
Aug 10, 2021 3:40 pm
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Ralph Walker Skating Rink.
Alders unanimously advanced two proposed public-private accords — one that would keep a community health center in Dixwell for the next two decades, another that would bring an ice rink management company to Upper State Street for the next five years.
Rethinking government: Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal discusses plans at press conference last week.
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The city’s pitch for a new Department of Community Resilience.
Alders unanimously advanced the Elicker Administration’s proposed creation of a new bulked up and reorganized social problem-solving city department — after debating using short-term federal cash to address long-term societal problems.
DuBois-Walton at presser: Mayor’s job is to find way to do what’s right.
If something appears wrong — like city government OK’ing, with almost no questions asked, $900,000 in state tax breaks for companies accused of fraud and controlled by an imprisoned sex predator — what should a mayor do?
Mayoral candidate Karen DuBois-Walton offered an answer Thursday that differed from the one offered by her opponent: Find a legal way to do what’s right.
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Thomas Breen |
Jun 4, 2021 11:57 am
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Mayor Elicker: “Fully fund the tiered PILOT program.”
The city’s fiscal future hangs in the balance as state lawmakers and the governor play chicken on municipal aid — and as Mayor Justin Elicker weighs whether or not to sign an alder-approved city budget that assumes a hefty fiscal bump from Hartford.
CFO Phillip Penn: Watch out for that funding cliff.
The New Haven Board of Education Wednesday night adopted a $198 million budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.
Though the board got millions less from the city than requested, this budget will not require layoffs or cuts, thanks to federal Covid-19 relief.
At the same time, a majority of board members voted down $5 hourly raises to parttime paraprofessionals, with the promise of some kind of raise before the end of the summer.
Alders overwhelmingly adopted a $606.3 million operating budget for the new fiscal year that keeps taxes flat and the libraries open, jacks up the city’s pension contributions — and assumes the state and Yale will fork over an extra $53 million.
Fairbank Apartments: No tax break for new owners. For now.
LISHTA member and Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola: NHI comments make secrecy necessary.
Alders lambasted two low-income senior apartment building owners for failing to show up to defend requested tax breaks and for attempting to take advantage of a cash-strapped city without creating new subsidized housing.
It turns out the landlords were never invited — and they had filed plans about which the alders were either unaware or confused.
Tenant Fabian Rosario and Rosa Rivera outside Fairbank: “Perfect.”
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Newly sold Fairbank Apartments at 355 Ferry St.
A California-based affordable housing developer has purchased a Fair Haven senior apartment complex for $11.1 million — and is seeking a local tax break for a $7 million rehab.
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Thomas Breen |
May 21, 2021 2:54 pm
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How the city plans to spend the first $26.3M in American Rescue Plan money.
Alders have fast-tracked approval of city plans to spend the first $26 million-plus in federal pandemic-era aid to bolster lost municipal revenue and build up a host of summer youth programs moved ahead.
Westville’s Mitchell library: No longer on the chopping block. If it ever really was.
Alders cast the first of two votes needed to pass a new city budget — ditching a “crisis” version tax increase and library closure, embracing a “forward” version assuming the state and Yale will pony up an extra $53 million.
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Thomas Breen |
May 11, 2021 11:21 am
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The new Q House, on the rise on Dixwell Ave.
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Monday night’s Finance Committee hearing.
Committee alders enthusiastically endorsed a three-year, $300,000 contract between the city and LEAP that would have the local youth tutoring and recreation agency manage — and fundraise for — the reborn “Q House” Dixwell Avenue community center.
Young New Haveners who spoke up at Monday’s budget hearing. Clockwise from top left: Kiana Flores, Jamila Washington, Eva Hana Starkey, Abiba Biao.
Seven-year-old Westville resident Eva Hana Starkey took a breath, leaned towards the camera from her father’s lap, and issued her budget-season plea to city lawmakers:
“I want the Mitchell Library to be open.”
Starkey was the youngest of two dozen members of the public to testify Monday night during the aldermanic Finance Committee’s last public hearing of this year’s budget-making season.
